Pediatr Allergy Immunol
September 2024
Background: A mother's diet during pregnancy may influence her infant's immune development. However, as potential interactions between components of our dietary intakes can make any nutritional analysis complex, here we took a multi-component dietary analysis approach.
Methods: Nutritional intake data was collected from 639 pregnant women using a validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire to reflect their dietary intakes during 32-36 weeks of gestation.
Background: Ingestion of prebiotics during pregnancy and lactation may have immunomodulatory benefits for the developing fetal and infant immune system and provide a potential dietary strategy to reduce the risk of allergic diseases.
Objective: We sought to determine whether maternal supplementation with dietary prebiotics reduces the risk of allergic outcomes in infants with hereditary risk.
Methods: We undertook a double-blind randomized controlled trial in which pregnant women were allocated to consume prebiotics (14.
Higher dietary fiber intakes during pregnancy may have the potential health benefits of increasing gut microbiome diversity, lowering the risk of glucose intolerance and pre-eclampsia, achieving appropriate gestational weight gain, and preventing constipation. In this observational cohort study, we have assessed the dietary fiber intakes of 804 women in late pregnancy, using a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire (SQ-FFQ). Overall, the median (interquartile range) dietary fiber intake was 24.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMaternal diet during pregnancy plays a likely role in infant immune development through both direct nutrient specific immunomodulatory effects and by modulating the composition and metabolic activity of the maternal gut microbiome. Dietary fibers, as major substrates for microbial fermentation, are of interest in this context. This is the first study to examine maternal intakes of different fiber sub-types and subsequent infant allergic disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExpert Rev Clin Immunol
January 2018
With increasing focus on nutritional strategies to counter the rising global burden of allergic disease, there has been a particular focus on prebiotic nutrients that are selectively utilized by host microorganisms to confer potential immunomodulatory benefits for disease prevention. Areas covered: In this review we examine maternal and infant dietary sources of prebiotics with a particular focus on non-digestible oligosaccharides, which undergo microbial fermentation by commensal gut bacteria to produce short chain fatty acids (SCFA). We summarize the major proposed health benefits of SCFA in early life immune development, together with the current evidence for maternal and/or infant prebiotic consumption in abrogating the risk of early childhood allergic diseases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The objective of this study was to compare the inflammatory status of children with differences in nutritional status.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 184 African children aged 13-18 y from a low socioeconomic background that compared stunted with non-stunted and lean with over-fat (percentage of body fat above normal cutoff points) children. Fasting serum tumor necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, and insulin were measured using high-sensitivity methods.