This book shows the huge impact the gut microbiota has on the gastrointestinal health of humans
with a particular focus on children. It also highlights the potential use of probiotic
microorganisms to protect or improve children's gastrointestinal health.Humans are not single
organisms: We are a multi-organism structure composed of ourselves and our microbiota living
in close symbiosis since birth and even before. The huge impact that the billons of microscopic
cells living in our gut have on our gastrointestinal and systemic health cannot be
overestimated. The enormous progress that has been made in the past decade in our still very
incomplete understanding of the gut microbiota is opening the door to potential applications in
human health that were simply unthinkable before.One of the most interesting aspects of this
new scientific horizon is the fact that we may identify (or even create in the laboratory) and
utilize many of these friendly bacteria to protect or improve our health. Thus strains of
probiotic microorganisms are being identified and studied in a vast array of clinical
scenarios. Among the most investigated areas for probiotics is the gastrointestinal health of
children.The topics addressed in this book are spanning from the development of the gut
microbiota in the fetus and newborn all the way to current and potential applications in
disparate conditions such as necrotizing enterocolitis or infectious or inflammatory
conditions affecting the child. The book is written in a rigorous evidence based manner by an
international group of outstanding experts in these fields and is aimed at pediatric
gastroenterologists pediatricians and physician scientists alike.
