A new Dartmouth-led study published in Pediatric Research has found a direct and sex-specific association between the composition of infant microbiome and early childhood behavioral health.
Previous studies have established a link between the gut microbiome — the overall communities of microbes that colonize the intestinal tract and play an important role in immune system development and health outcomes — and behaviors like depression, anxiety, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. But until now, there has been little to no human data from which to characterize the role of the microbiome during infancy in relation to these outcomes in children, and how they may differ in boys and girls.
