An interesting one for all those other parents out there, the bacteria in your child’s gut could be having an effect on their behaviour.
Published in the journal Brain, Behaviour, and Immunity, researchers were interested to see if there was a link between the bacteria found in children’s guts and their general behaviour.
First things first and I am sure we are all aware, there were differences in behaviour between boys and girls despite them having comparable bacteria in their guts. But in both girls and boys a more diverse gut bacteria correlated with higher surgency/extraversion. This includes speed of response reaction and pleasure seeking/anticipation. In other words, it is a good thing.
The researchers state that this study demonstrates that microbiota-behaviour interactions are evident at an early age. It was not designed to work out the mechanism by which the bacteria influence behaviour but the researchers hope that larger studies will start to address this.
The take home message seems to be diversity is the way to go, so based on previous blogs, include things such as probiotics and fermented foods in the diet and keep the processed food to a minimum.