We want our children to grow up happy and healthy. To ensure this, we try to take many protective and proactive measures to keep our children free of infections as far as possible.

However, children are children, and as part of their natural learning journey, they will pick things up and put them into their mouth. Occasionally, your child may pick up infection-causing germs.

So how do you help him cope with these germs? Well most definitely not by sanitizing everything in sight with anti-bacterial wipes and antiseptics. In fact, believe it or not, the one thing that you should be doing to build your child’s natural defences, is to actually work hard to cultivate good bacteria in your child’s gut.

Here's a quick fact: The gut is home to 70% of the body’s immune cells1 and trillion of friendly bacteria (or healthy gut microbiota)

Yes, the gut, or the gastrointestinal tract, is the largest immune organ in the body. It hosts your child’s own little army of immune cells and friendly bacteria which help his natural defences – or the body’s ability to identify and kill bad germs that can cause infections — to function properly in the following ways:

• Preventing infections: The friendly bacteria in the gut form a layer covering the wall of the gut. This extra layer acts as a barrier against infection-causing germs, by leaving no space on the gut wall for them to grow, thus protecting children from infections2,3.
• Helping to manage allergic reactions: The immune cells identify which substances are harmful and which are safe for your child’s body. This function is extremely important in the management of allergies1. Allergies typically happen when the immune system is hyperactive to a safe substance. This happens more often in children, as the immune system is not yet fully developed. Healthy gut microbiota supports the development of immune system so that it will be less likely to react in a hyperactive manner to safe substances4.