Human microbiomes are predicted to assemble in a reproducible and ordered manner yet there is limited knowledge on the development of the complex bacterial communities that constitute the oral microbiome. The oral microbiome plays major roles in many oral diseases including early childhood caries (ECC), which afflicts up to 70% of children in some countries. Saliva contains oral bacteria that are indicative of the whole oral microbiome and may have the ability to reflect the dysbiosis in supragingival plaque communities that initiates the clinical manifestations of ECC. The aim of this study was to determine the assembly of the oral microbiome during the first four years of life and compare it with the clinical development of ECC. The oral microbiomes of 134 children enrolled in a birth cohort study were determined at six ages between two months and four years-of-age and their mother’s oral microbiome was determined at a single time point. We identified and quantified 356 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) of bacteria in saliva by sequencing the V4 region of the bacterial 16S RNA genes. Bacterial alpha diversity increased from a mean of 31 OTUs in the saliva of infants at 1.9 months-of-age to 84 OTUs at 39 months-of-age. The oral microbiome showed a distinct shift in composition as the children matured. The microbiome data were compared with the clinical development of ECC in the cohort at 39, 48, and 60 months-of-age as determined by ICDAS-II assessment. Streptococcus mutans was the most discriminatory oral bacterial species between health and current disease, with an increased abundance in disease. Overall our study demonstrates an ordered temporal development of the oral microbiome, describes a limited core oral microbiome and indicates that saliva testing of infants may help predict ECC risk.
Background
Diet cariogenicity plays a major role as both a protective and risk factor in the development of early childhood caries (ECC).
Aim
Develop a scale measuring the cariogenicity of foods and beverages and employ it to describe the cariogenicity of young children's diets and predict dental caries outcomes.
Design
Scores of cariogenicity and consumption frequency were applied to food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) collected from an Australian children's cohort study with three time‐points of data. One‐way ANOVA, with post hoc Tukey test compared mean cariogenic scale measured at 18 months between the subsample of children with caries classification at age 5 years.
Results
At 6 months, children's mean cariogenic score was 10.05, increasing to 34.18 at 12 and 50.00 at 18 months. Mean cariogenic scale score at 18 months was significantly higher in children with advanced disease at 5 years (mean scale score: 59.0 ± 15.9) compared to those that were healthy (mean score 47.7 ± 17.5, P = 0.007) or had mild‐moderate disease (mean score 48.2 ± 17.3, P = 0.008).
Conclusions
The cariogenic diet scale provides a useful indication of the increasing cariogenicity of children's diets with age and highlights the incorporation of discretionary choice foods and beverages into the diets of young children much earlier than nutritionally recommended.
BackgroundThe current literature regarding the transition from milks to solid foods across the first 2 years of life is limited despite the important influence of early dietary intake on children's growth and development. The present study describes dietary intake from birth to 2 years across four developmental relevant time‐points within an Australian birth cohort.MethodsDietary data from 466 infants was collected at four time‐points in the first 2 years of life via parent‐reported questionnaire, including a 45‐item food and beverage frequency questionnaire. Subsample analyses of children who were aged 1–3, 6–8, 12–14 and 18–20 months at the time of data collection were conducted.ResultsInfant formula remained consistently consumed by over 75% of children from the 6–8‐ to 18–20 months old age groups. Mean (SD) age of introduction to solid foods was 5.2 (1.3) months. Almost 20% and 10% of children were introduced before 16 and after 32 weeks, respectively. The highest consumption of core foods, recommended for a healthy diet, daily was seen in the 12–14 months old age group with lower proportions in the 18–20 months old age group coinciding with an increased proportion of children eating discretionary choice foods, not recommended for a healthy diet. Discretionary choice foods/beverages presented in children's diets as early as in the 6–8 months old age group. By 18–20 months, at least 20% of children were consuming savoury biscuits, sweet biscuits, muesli bars and luncheon meats at least twice a week.ConclusionsThe present study identified a number of findings outside the recommendations of the Australian Dietary and Infant Feeding Guidelines. Further work is warranted to explore these outcomes.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.