Applied and environmental microbiology
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Appl. Environ. Microbiol. · Sep 2018
Randomized Controlled TrialMediation Analysis as a Means of Identifying Dietary Components That Differentially Affect the Fecal Microbiota of Infants Weaned by Modified Baby-Led and Traditional Approaches.
The introduction of "solids" (i.e., complementary foods) to the milk-only diet in early infancy affects the development of the gut microbiota. The aim of this study was to determine whether a "baby-led" approach to complementary feeding that encourages the early introduction of an adult-type diet results in alterations of the gut microbiota composition compared to traditional spoon-feeding. The Baby-Led Introduction to SolidS (BLISS) study randomized 206 infants to BLISS (a modified version of baby-led weaning [BLW], the introduction of solids at 6 months of age, followed by self-feeding of family foods) or control (traditional spoon-feeding of purées) groups. ⋯ In baby-led weaning (BLW), infants are given only finger foods that they can pick up and feed themselves-there is no parental spoon-feeding of puréed baby foods-and infants are encouraged to eat family meals. BLW is a new approach to infant feeding that is increasing in popularity in the United States, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Canada. We used mediation modeling, commonly used in health research but not in microbiota studies until now, to identify particular dietary components that affected the development of the infant gut microbiota.