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It is common for pregnant mothers who deliver prematurely to be treated with antibiotics during their pregnancy and postnatally. And it is well-documented that the premie population is strikingly dysbiotic and at great risk for a range of disorders including cognitive difficulties, feeding problems, GI disease, as well as disorders of social development. The efficacy of the oligosaccharide milk constituent, 2’-fucosyllactose (2'-FL), in resetting a healthy trajectory of neurobehavioral development will be studied. 

Antibiotics (ABs) represent the most common type of medication used during infancy. ABs have been proposed as a possible factor playing a role in the etiology of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) promoting long lasting adverse effects on brain development. It has been claimed that AB use during early life may have a detrimental effect on the gut-brain axis by interfering with regular gut microbiota (GM) colonization.

The microbiota plays a key role early in life for the development of the immune system. Dietary weaning (the transition from a milk only diet to a diversified diet) induces a vast expansion of the microbiota and in response, a vigorous immune reaction termed the “weaning reaction” (WR). Early life treatment with antibiotics interferes with this early life immune response to the microbiota, and diets that lack fibers or that are excessively rich in lipids, lead to pathological imprinting later in life.