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- Page navigation anchor for RE: Postnatal exposure to household disinfectants, infant gut microbiota and subsequent risk of overweight in childrenRE: Postnatal exposure to household disinfectants, infant gut microbiota and subsequent risk of overweight in children
Response to Randall C Willis, Features Editor/Writer, DDNews
The words ‘affected/altered/changed’ are in reference to a comparison group of infants, ie. infants who lived in households with a low frequency use of the tested cleaning product category. These words did not describe change in microbial composition from an earlier time point since as you correctly pointed out, we did not have data on microbial profiles from a sample collected near birth. More importantly to conduct a study of change in microbial composition over time, we would have needed to know the time of the introduction of the cleaning product. We did not collect this information but do know from questionnaires administered during pregnancy that many parents continued their use of the same cleaning product category after the birth of their child. This observation was noted in our paper. Hence, for most part, infant exposure to the cleaning product commenced soon after birth and likely, use of cleaning products affected the home microbial environment during the time of pregnancy.
On a final note, our use of statistical mediation methods was one step towards demonstrating causation but animal model studies are required to prove causation. Indeed, we cited a study by Schmidt et al in piglets that remarkably, produced similar results to ours.
Response to Ellenmarie Brown, Internal Medicine Physician
In our study, parents were not asked to report brand names of the eco-products they...
Show MoreCompeting Interests: None declared. - Page navigation anchor for RE: eco friendly productsRE: eco friendly products
Can you please give examples of eco friendly products you suggest using?
Competing Interests: None declared. - Page navigation anchor for RE: Postnatal exposure to household disinfectants, infant gut microbiota and subsequent risk of overweight in childrenRE: Postnatal exposure to household disinfectants, infant gut microbiota and subsequent risk of overweight in children
Epidemiology is not my expertise, so I am confused by the conclusion that household cleaning products “affected”, “altered” or “changed” fecal microbiota profiles given that only one fecal sample was collected from each child at 3-4 months of age.
“Associations with altered microbiota were most compelling for frequent use of household disinfectants, which showed reduced abundance of genus Haemophilus and of genus Clostridium.” Altered from what and reduced abundance compared to what?
Had a fecal sample been collected near birth and then at 3-4 months post-partum, I could understand the idea of changing microbiota profiles based on cleaning product exposure over the first 3-4 months of life. But I see no suggestion that this was how the study was conducted.
The study authors state as much under the heading of Limitations.
I acknowledge correlations between disinfectant exposure, specific microbial prevalences and overweight, but have no sense that the second is causally linked to the first without the pre-exposure microbiota profiles.
I thank you for your attention.Competing Interests: None declared.