Your #immune #system is fairly #vulnerable at #birth. Over life, it #develops through #exposure to new #foreign #substances. But how does it learn how to distinguish between what’s #safe and what’s not? 🤔⠀ ⠀ Turns out, it has a lot to do with #bacteria. A baby’s first #microbial #partners shape its #gastrointestinal tract, and through their #evolved #interactions with the developing body and immune system, begin to instruct and modulate the ‘right’ responses.⠀ ⠀ A lot of this happens via #breastfeeding. Breast milk contains a range of sugars called Human Milk Oligosaccharides (#HMOs) that #babies cannot #digest. Instead, this #complex #sugar serves to nourish certain beneficial gut bacteria in the infant called Bifidobacterium infantis. 👶🏼 ⠀ ⠀ These bacteria occupy the surface of the baby’s large intestine, and prevent #pathogens from gaining a foothold, protecting the infant from infection. They encourage gut cells to seal the intestinal lining, and produce anti-inflammatory molecu...