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+--- Thread: Boys grow at slower rate if they were given antibiotics as newborns (/thread-9730.html)
Boys grow at slower rate if they were given antibiotics as newborns - C C - Jan 27, 2021
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2265720-boys-grow-at-slower-rate-if-they-were-given-antibiotics-as-newborns/
INTRO: If boys get antibiotics in the first two weeks of life their weight and height gain is more likely to be below average – but the effect isn’t seen in girls. Some babies are given antibiotics to treat suspected bacterial infections and to prevent sepsis. Samuli Rautava at the University of Helsinki in Finland and his colleagues explored the long-term effects of giving antibiotics to newborns within two weeks of birth.
They recorded the growth of 12,422 children from birth to six years of age. All were born between 2008 and 2010 at the Turku University Hospital in Finland. Of these, 1151 babies were given antibiotics within the first 14 days of life because doctors suspected bacterial infection.
Babies given antibiotics were more likely to have a significantly lower height and weight throughout their first six years of life than those who weren’t given antibiotics – but this was only observed in boys, not girls. “We showed for the first time that antibiotic exposure during the first days of life has long-term effects,” says Rautava. The researchers suspect that the antibiotics cause long-term changes in the babies’ gut microbiome, resulting in reduced growth... (MORE)