According to the scientific journal Nature, infectious disease experts from the University Hospital of Helsinki, Finland, presented the results of a study on the so-called “faecal milkshake” at the Infectious Diseases Association of America (IDSA) meeting held in California, USA on from 18 (local time).

“Faecal milkshake” means milk obtained by mixing the mother’s faeces.

Dr. Otto Helve, director of public health at the Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare, conducted an experiment on 90 women scheduled for a caesarean section at Helsinki University Hospital. Among them, 54 people with harmful pathogens in their feces were excluded from the experiment, and only women who did not have harmful pathogens in their feces were selected as the test group.

The research team mixed 3.5 mg of faeces from a woman who had given birth by caesarean section into the milk and provided the baby with the first feed. Fifteen babies were given a “faecal milkshake” and another 16 babies were given a placebo (a fake drug that induces psychological effects).

As a result, the research team claimed to have captured significant results in the process of analyzing the baby’s feces. There is a significant difference in gut microbial diversity between the two subjects.

The research team said: “As a result of analyzing the faecal samples of the babies, the microbial diversity of the two groups was similar when they were just born, but after a certain period of time, a large difference was observed between the babies who ate a small amount of feces and those who did not.”

“This difference lasted until six months of age, when the babies started eating baby food,” he said. Currently, the experiment continues, and the research team will check and analyze the health status of the babies for a total of two years.

“Babies born by C-section are known to be at higher risk of asthma, inflammation of the digestive system, and immune-related diseases than babies born by C-section,” the research team said. “We also observed that babies born by C-section have different gut bacterial distributions compared to babies born naturally because they are not exposed to their mother’s quality and gut micro-organisms.”

However, some pointed out that the study did not directly compare with naturally born babies, raising questions about whether feeding C-section babies “faecal milkshakes” can build up a similar amount of gut micro-organisms to actual natural born babies .

Reporter Park Sun-Young from Digital News Team

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