The lockdowns in Ireland due to the COVID-19 pandemic saw babies breastfed for an extended period of time which created healthier gut microbiome, new research has revealed.
A groundbreaking study has tracked the gut health, allergy rates, and social development in lockdown babies.
Tracking 350 babies through faecal samples, scientists were able to discover that these infants’ gut microbiome was “more like you would want”.
On Moncrieff, Paediatric Consultant and lead of the ‘Floral Study’ Professor Jonathan said the rates of breastfeeding in lockdown babies was much higher than normal.
Proud Parents Holding Baby Daughter In Garden. Image: MBI / Alamy. 26 June 2013“The babies born during the lockdown were breastfed far longer than the normal rate in Ireland, which is the worst in Europe,” he said.
“They had much higher rates of breastfeeding up to six months and twelve months and even out to two years there were some babies getting breastfed – which is almost unheard of in Ireland.
“The amount of antibiotic use was down by two thirds - so there were significant positive effects.
“Then the negative effects were that the children weren’t meeting people in the second six months of life who then shape their microbiome to the more conventional or realised form.”
Prof Hourihane said the lockdowns were a “very good way” of protecting babies but it came at a price for them.
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Mother with baby. Image: Oksana Kuzmina / Alamy. 24 October 2014
