Exposure to germs helps build immunity in kids

Have you ever stopped your kids from getting their hands dirty with mud or sand? If so, you may want to rethink your stand as many medical experts now believe that playing with mud is a great way to strengthen your child’s immunity. In fact, doctors and scientists believe that allergies and asthma are higher in wealthy countries due to lack of exposure to bacteria and other microorganisms — a fact backed by several studies.

One such study, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found that children with the highest exposure to specific allergens and bacteria (including cockroach, mouse and cat allergens) in the first year were less likely to have wheezing by age three. And children exposed to a wider variety of bacteria were less likely to develop allergies and asthma.

A consultant, neonatology and paediatrics,  points out that in India, we have lesser allergies overall because we have higher germ exposure than in the western world. “Exposure to germs builds immunity, and works in the same way as vaccines, which expose kids to a small amount of germs so that when the real infection strikes, the body fights it better. In fact, street kids are a lot healthier than those brought up in very clean conditions,” she says.

“By being exposed to dirt and mud, the immune system is exposed to various microbiota,” explains a senior consultant paediatrician and neonatology. “There are scientific reports on mud therapy and their impact on the immune system. Playing in the mud has other advantages for kids as well, like development of the sensory nervous system, developing fine motor skills and enhancing creativity,” he adds.

Dr.  points out that even the umbilical cord which harbours a lot of bacteria is left on a newborn for a few days as these natural bacteria help fight against various infections. “Exposure to natural bacteria is good and recommended,” she states.

Agreeing with her, a consultant, infectious diseases  adds, “The more people keep away from natural surroundings, the higher are the cases of autoimmune conditions. Exposure to germs in a subtle way is excellent to improve immunity.” Dr. adds, “Natural experiences like gardening, visiting farm houses etc. are great ways to achieve this.”

The hygiene hypothesis which has gained large acceptance among the scientific and medical community states that early exposure to microorganisms helps a child’s immune system develop resistance to infections and protects against allergic diseases. Does this mean that one should expose kids to germs from the day they are born?

“For the first six months, kids are not mobile. It’s nature’s way of preventing exposure to germs. During that time, kids are also protected by the mother’s immunity. It’s only after six months that babies start crawling and get exposed to different surfaces,” explains a paediatrician. “For the first six months, the immune system is not developed, so one needs to be a little careful,” adds Dr.

Dr. is however, quick to point out that exposure to germs does not mean exposure to a sick person. “All organisms are not disease-causing ones. But one needs to protect kids from disease-causing germs and infections. Avoid very crowded places. When kids are sick, parents should not send them to school. Cases of infection are also rising so one needs to be careful,” he says.

“Ensure the mud they are playing in is not contaminated with dirty water or fecal matter,” cautions the Dr.  adding that some basic hygiene practices like washing hands after play time and before meals, eating healthy food and drinking clean water can be helpful in reducing the risk of infections.

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Learning fine motor coordination changes the brain

When we train the reaching for and grasping of objects, we also train our brain. In other words, this action brings about changes in the connections of a certain neuronal population in the red nucleus, a region of the midbrain. Researchers have discovered this group of nerve cells in the red nucleus. They have also shown how fine motor tasks promote plastic reorganization of this brain region. 

Simply grasping a coffee cup needs fine motor coordination with the highest precision. This required performance of the brain is an ability that can also be learned and trained. Prof. Kelly Tan’s research group at the Biozentrum, University of Basel, has investigated the red nucleus, a region of the midbrain that controls fine motor movement, and identified a new population of nerve cells which changes when fine motor coordination is trained. The more that grasping is practiced, the more the connections between the neurons of this group of nerve cells are strengthened.

The red nucleus, a little investigated region of the brain
Grasping is a skill that can be trained and improved, even in adults. For muscles to perform a movement correctly, brain commands must be transmitted through the spinal cord. The red nucleus, which, over the years, has received little attention in brain research, plays an important role in fine motor coordination. Here the brain learns new fine motor skills for grasping and stores what it has learned.

Our fine motor skills such as grasping are steered by the red nucleus, a region of the midbrain. 

The image is credited to University of Basel, Biozentrum.

Prof. Kelly Tan’s team has now investigated the red nucleus in more detail in the mouse model and analyzed its structure and neuronal composition. “We have found that this brain region is very heterogeneous and consists of different neuron populations,” says the first author of the study.

Improved fine motor skills through plastic changes in the brain
The research team has characterized one of these neuron populations and demonstrated that learning new grasping movements strengthens the connections between the individual neurons. “When learning new fine motor skills, the coordination of this specific movement is optimized and stored in the brain as a code,” explains Tan. “Thus, we have been able to also demonstrate neuroplasticity in the red nucleus.”

In a further step, the team now wants to investigate the stability of these strengthened nerve cell connections in the red nucleus and find out to what extent they regress when the learned fine motor movements are not practiced. The findings could also provide new insights into the understanding of Parkinson’s disease, in which affected individuals suffer from motor disorders. The team hopes to find out whether the neuronal connections in the red nucleus have also changed in these patients and to what extent fine motor training can restrengthen the neuronal network.


Excitatory rubral cells encode the acquisition of novel complex motor tasks
The red nucleus (RN) is required for limb control, specifically fine motor coordination. There is some evidence for a role of the RN in reaching and grasping, mainly from lesion studies, but results so far have been inconsistent. In addition, the role of RN neurons in such learned motor functions at the level of synaptic transmission has been largely neglected. Here, we show that Vglut2-expressing RN neurons undergo plastic events and encode the optimization of fine movements. RN light-ablation severely impairs reaching and grasping functions while sparing general locomotion. We identify a neuronal population co-expressing Vglut2, PV and C1QL2, which specifically undergoes training-dependent plasticity. Selective chemo-genetic inhibition of these neurons perturbs reaching and grasping skills. Our study highlights the role of the Vglut2-positive rubral population in complex fine motor tasks, with its related plasticity representing an important starting point for the investigation of mechanistic substrates of fine motor coordination training.

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Can Parents' Weight Hinder Toddlers' Development?

Children who have obese parents may show signs of developmental delays, such as poor social skills, by the time they're 3 years old, a new study suggests.

The specific developmental problems seem to differ depending on whether the mother, father or both parents are obese, according to researchers from the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

"Specifically, mothers' obesity was associated with a delay in achieving fine-motor skills, and fathers' obesity in achieving personal and social skills -- that includes skills for interacting with others," said lead researcher Edwina Yeung. She's an investigator in the institute's division of intramural population health research.

"When both parents were obese, it meant longer time to develop problem-solving skills," she added.

However, one pediatric neurologist not involved with the research isn't convinced that the study authors proved their case.

And Yeung acknowledged the same. "We used observational data, which doesn't allow us to prove cause and effect, per se," she explained.

The researchers did find that, compared with children of normal-weight mothers, children of obese mothers were 67 percent more likely to fail a test of fine-motor skills (using their hands and fingers) by age 3.

In addition, children of obese fathers were about 71 percent more likely to fail tests of personal and social skills, which may indicate how well they relate to and interact with others, by age 3, the researchers said.

Children whose mother and father were both obese were nearly three times more likely to fail tests of problem-solving ability by age 3, the findings suggested.

According to Yeung, about 2 percent to 4 percent of the children failed any single test.

Yeung said she can't explain the apparent connection between parental obesity and kids' developmental problems. For maternal obesity, some animal studies have suggested that inflammation could affect the fetal brain, she said.

With paternal obesity, the effect on offspring might be due to either gene mutations or other inherited genetic factors in sperm, Yeung said.

Most research into understanding child health and development has focused on mothers and their pregnancies. "Our findings suggest that factors from fathers may also play a role and deserve attention," Yeung said.

The report was published online Jan. 2 in the journal Pediatrics.

One child health expert doesn't think obese parents should be overly concerned by this study.

"Children of obese parents are not doomed to have developmental problems," said Dr. Ian Miller. He is a pediatric neurologist and director of neuroinformatics at Nicklaus Children's Hospital in Miami.

Any medical condition that affects the brain -- such as lead-poisoning, sickle cell disease, iron-deficiency anemia, autism, epilepsy or cerebral palsy -- can cause developmental problems, Miller said. He isn't ready, however, to add obesity to that list.

No matter whether parents are obese, normal weight or underweight, every child who might have a developmental problem should be screened and given help and therapy, he suggested.

Obesity may be a marker for increased risk of these problems, Miller said. The risk for developmental problems is low among all children, including those of obese parents. "It's not a 'sky is falling' type of scenario," he said.

For the study, Yeung and her colleagues collected data on more than 5,000 women and their children who were part of the Upstate KIDS study, which sought to determine if fertility treatments could affect child development from birth through age 3.

The women were enrolled in the study about four months after giving birth in New York state (excluding New York City) between 2008 and 2010.

About one in five pregnant women in the United States is overweight or obese, Yeung said.

To check the children's development, parents completed the Ages and Stages Questionnaire after doing a series of activities with their children, Yeung said.

The test doesn't diagnose specific problems, but is a screen for potential problems, so that children can be referred for further testing, she explained.

Children were tested at 4 months of age, and six more times through age 3 years. Mothers also gave information on their health and weight, both before and after pregnancy, and the weight of their partners, Yeung said.

Yeung said more studies are needed to explore this study's findings.

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