Main description:

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.

Contents:

The newborn
* Microbial contact during first 1000 days of human life: from pre-conception to 2 years Marta Selma-Royo;, Maria Tarrazo; Izaskun Garcia-Mantrana, Carlos Gomez-Gallego, Seppo Salminen, Maria Carmen Collado mcolam@iata.csic.es
* Necrotizing Enterocolitis and the Preterm Infant Microbiome Jillian R. Baranowski and Erika C. Claud MD eclaud@peds.bsd.uchicago.edu
* Can postbiotics represent a new strategy for NEC? Fabio Mosca fabio.mosca@unimi.it , Maria Lorella Gianni, Maria Rescigno

The Infant
* Preventing and treating colics Flavia Indrio f.indrio@neonatologia.uniba.it, Vanessa Nadia Dargenio, Paola Giordano and Ruggiero Francavilla * Targeting Food Allergy with Probiotics Lorella Paparo, Rita Nocerino, Carmen Di Scala, Giusy Della Gatta, Margherita Di Costanzo, Aniello Buono, Cristina Bruno and Roberto Berni Canani berni@unina.it
* Use of Probiotics To Prevent Celiac Disease And Inflammatory Bowel Disease In Children Gloria Serena, Alessio Fasano afasano@partners.org
The child
* Fighting fatty liver diseases with nutritional interventions, probiotics, synbiotics and fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) Valerio Nobili vnobili66@gmail.com, Antonella Mosca fabio.mosca@unimi.it, Tommaso Alterio, Sabrina Cardile, Lorenza Putignani
* Probiotics in the treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease Stefano Guandalini sguandal@uchicago.edu, Naire Sansotta
* Acute Infectious Diarrhea Andrea Lo Vecchio, Vittoria Buccigrossi, Maria Cristina Fedele, Alfredo Guarino alfguari@unina.it
* Functional GI disorders Iva Hojsak ivahojsak@gmail.com

* Clostridium difficile colitis prevention and treatment Meltem Dinleyici, Yvan Vandenplas Yvan.Vandenplas@UZBRUSSEL.BE