Hello, I have just finished reading the Clever Guts book and I am fascinated with the topic. My friend has a 8 month old baby, who had a traumatic arrival and swallowed some meconium during birth and then was on antibiotics as a result. This gorgeous little boy has been a difficult, unsettled bub and will not sleep and just seems generally unhappy. As a mother of three, I know that babies have sleep issues, however I cant help but wonder if there could be a link. I would love to be able to help my friend (a first time mum) to find an answer. Any thoughts of how she could investigate this?

There is a thread here in the Welcome forum titled ‘Newborn Antibiotics’. I suggested the author looked at the work of Prof. Rob Knight of the American Gut Project (linked to the British, Asian and Australian Gut Projects) and author of ‘Follow Your Gut’.

Prof. Knight contributes to ongoing research on the different gut microbiomes of babies born by C-section or naturally, breast fed or formula, antibiotics or not. To find published studies try Google Scholar and PubMed.

HTH!