How Does A Baby Born From A Sterile Womb Aquire The E.coli Necessary For Digestion & Vitamin Production?
Monday, February 15th, 2010 at
4:58 am
Because babies are sterile in the womb and usually receive breast milk or formula free of E.coli, how do the harmless strains of E.coli enter the body to aid in digestion and vitamin K production?
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Tagged with: Aquire • Baby • Born • Digestion • Does • E.coli • From • Necessary • Sterile • Womb
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Hi, Great Question!
Although the womb is sterile, the birth canal is not. E.coli is found in abundance there (along with other bacteria)
The baby is exposed to them during birth. The baby may swallow or breathe in the fluid in the birth canal and then the bacteria may get into the baby’s lungs and bloodstream.
Pass on the good Karma!
E. coli is everywhere. It is *really* hard to maintain a completely sterile environment outside the womb. So even though a baby is born with little or no E. coli (and other beneficial bacteria), it doesn’t take long for this to enter the baby’s digestive system and take up residence.
This is why newborn babies don’t have much ability to digest anything but breast milk (or the nutritional simulations we call formula), or to manufacture these vitamins. They need these things in the breast milk or formula.
Sorry, but DumbDumb’s answer is not correct. The Escherichia coli bacteria do not enter the lungs and bloodstream of the infant–that would cause disease and could result in death.
E. coli is strictly a gastrointestinal organism. There are hundreds of strains of E. coli; some cause disease and some do not. In a healthy adult, 40% of feces is bacteria. That means that in stool sample the size of a pea there is approximately 100 BILLION bacteria–most of those are E. coli. It takes approximately 40 hours after birth for a newborn’s intestinal tract to be colonized by E. coli.