Associations of Infant Feeding, Sleep, and Weight Gain with the Toddler Gut Microbiome

Abstract

This study examines how feeding, sleep, and growth during infancy impact the gut microbiome (GM) in toddlers. The research was conducted on toddlers (n = 36), born to Latina women of low-income with obesity. Their mothers completed retrospective feeding and sleeping questionnaires at 1, 6, and 12 months; at 36 months, fecal samples were collected. Sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene (V4 region) revealed that breastfeeding for at least 1 month and the introduction of solids before 6 months differentiated the GM in toddlerhood (Bray-Curtis, pseudo-F = 1.805, p = 0.018, and pseudo-F = 1.651, p = 0.044, respectively). Sleep had an effect across time; at 1 and 6 months of age, a lower proportion of nighttime sleep (relative to 24 h total sleep) was associated with a richer GM at three years of age (Shannon H = 4.395, p = 0.036 and OTU H = 5.559, p = 0.018, respectively). Toddlers experiencing rapid weight gain from birth to 6 months had lower phylogenetic diversity (Faith PD H = 3.633, p = 0.057). These findings suggest that early life nutrition, sleeping patterns, and growth rate in infancy may influence the GM composition. Further verification of these results with objective sleep data and a larger sample is needed.

Keywords: 3-year-old gut microbiome; early life behaviors; infant sleep.

Figure 1

Alpha diversity (Faith PD) of toddlers at 3 years of age by (A) total sleep time in a 24 h period (24hTST); and (B) proportion of nighttime sleep relative to 24hTST reported by mothers at 6 months of age.

Figure 2

Beta diversity plots for infants with >66% (pink) and ≤66% (blue) proportions of their total 24 h sleep at night at 6 months with 95% confidence ellipses and PERMANOVA p-values using the following diversity metrics: (A) Jaccard; (B) Bray–Curtis; (C) unweighted Unifrac; (D) weighted Unifrac.