‘It’s Not Me – It’s My Germs’; what I’m really trying to look at in this presentation is how our gut affects our behavior.

I’m sure Emerson didn’t mean this when he said this quote, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters compared to what lies within us,” but I certainly mean the guts.

The gut is a very complex organ. As we know, when you spread it out, it’s the size of a tennis court, the surface area is 300 square meters, and there are hundreds of trillions of bacteria that make up our gut microbiota. We are an ecosystem of the immune system, neurons, and certainly microbes.

How would I know if gut dysfunction is affecting my child’s behavior?

Well, any of these could be signs that the gut is affecting your child’s behavior. Difficulty breastfeeding; persistent colic, either longer than it should be in months or longer in the course of the day or more severe; gastroesophageal reflux, it’s not just positional; food sensitivity, not just allergies but sensitivity; an insatiable appetite that is often a sign of germ overgrowth where your child is eating and eating and eating, especially craving certain foods and not even gaining weight; failure to thrive can be a sign…