--- title: Use of Antibiotics in Infants Tied to Diseases in Adulthood description: Diseases, obesity, and illness may appear in adulthood because of antibiotic resistance we develop as newborns, a new study says. canonical: https://time.com/3858258/infant-childhood-antibiotics-adulthood-gut-bacteria-diseases-obesity/ author: Sabrina Toppa article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-14T09:41:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:49:38.051Z article:section: Health og:title: Infant Antibiotic Use Tied to Illness in Adulthood og:description: By altering infant gut bacteria, antibiotics make us vulnerable to disease later og:url: https://time.com/3858258/infant-childhood-antibiotics-adulthood-gut-bacteria-diseases-obesity/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9e71b278767f9feb/6987efb106f2c14aca338366/459913460.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5000 og:image:height: 2813 og:image:alt: Many red and transparent medical capsules, filled with yellow medicine, pouring out of a brown bottle, displayed on a white table n Wuerzburg, Bavaria, Germany in December 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Infant Antibiotic Use Tied to Illness in Adulthood twitter:description: By altering infant gut bacteria, antibiotics make us vulnerable to disease later twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9e71b278767f9feb/6987efb106f2c14aca338366/459913460.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Giving Antibiotics to Infants is Strongly Related to Illness In Adulthood > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Sabrina Toppa](https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa May 14, 2015 9:41 AM UTC  WUERZBURG, BAVARIA, GERMANY - 2014/12/02: Many red and transparent medical capsules, filled with yellow medicine, pouring out of a brown bottle, displayed on a white table. (Photo by Frank Bienewald/LightRocket via Getty Images) WUERZBURG, BAVARIA, GERMANY - 2014/12/02: Many red and transparent medical capsules, filled with yellow medicine, pouring out of a brown bottle, displayed on a white table. (Photo by Frank Bienewald/LightRocket via Getty Images)Getty Images by [Sabrina Toppa](https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/) ## Sabrina Toppa May 14, 2015 9:41 AM UTC Illness may appear in adulthood because of antibiotic resistance we develop when doctors prescribe us antibiotics as newborns and infants, researchers say. The antibiotics may alter infant gut bacteria, which are tied to everything from allergies and obesity to infectious diseases, according to a [new study](http://www.cell.com/cell-host-microbe/fulltext/S1931-3128%2815%2900164-X) published in the scientific journal _Cell Host & Microbe_. Researchers from the University of Minnesota found that antibiotics eliminated bacteria in the gut that enabled the growth of allergen-fighting immune cells. Antibiotics were also found to alter critical gut microbiota that determine our vulnerability to a number of infectious diseases. “Over the past year we synthesized hundreds of studies and found evidence of strong correlations between antibiotic use, changes in gut bacteria, and disease in adulthood,” [said](http://discover.umn.edu/news/science-technology/infant-antibiotic-use-linked-adult-diseases) the study’s lead author Dr. Dan Knights. Antibiotics remain the most prevalent drug prescribed to children, accounting for approximately a quarter of all childhood medications. However, around 30% of prescriptions are deemed unnecessary. “We think these findings help develop a roadmap for future research to determine the health consequences of antibiotic use and for recommendations for prescribing them,” Knights added. ### See the Human Body Under a Microscope  Adrenaline crystals (polarized light micrographs) Reprinted with permission from Science is Beautiful © 2014 by Batsford, an imprint of Pavilion Books Company Limited  Balancing stone from inner ear (colored scanning electron micrograph) Reprinted with permission from Science is Beautiful © 2014 by Batsford, an imprint of Pavilion Books Company Limited  Blood clot (colored scanning electron micrograph) Reprinted with permission from Science is Beautiful © 2014 by Batsford, an imprint of Pavilion Books Company Limited  Breast cancer (light micrograph) Reprinted with permission from Science is Beautiful © 2014 by Batsford, an imprint of Pavilion Books Company Limited  Insulin crystals (polarized light micrograph) Reprinted with permission from Science is Beautiful © 2014 by Batsford, an imprint of Pavilion Books Company Limited  Melatonin crystals (polarized light micrograph) Reprinted with permission from Science is Beautiful © 2014 by Batsford, an imprint of Pavilion Books Company Limited  Penicillium fungus (colored scanning electron micrograph) Reprinted with permission from Science is Beautiful © 2014 by Batsford, an imprint of Pavilion Books Company Limited  Serotonin crystals (polarized light micrograph) Reprinted with permission from Science is Beautiful © 2014 by Batsford, an imprint of Pavilion Books Company Limited  Vaginal cancer cells (colored scanning electron micrograph) Reprinted with permission from Science is Beautiful © 2014 by Batsford, an imprint of Pavilion Books Company Limited  Ventolin crystals (colred scanning electron micrographs) Reprinted with permission from Science is Beautiful © 2014 by Batsford, an imprint of Pavilion Books Company Limited ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3858258/infant-childhood-antibiotics-adulthood-gut-bacteria-diseases-obesity/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3858258/infant-childhood-antibiotics-adulthood-gut-bacteria-diseases-obesity/"},"headline":"Giving Antibiotics to Infants is Strongly Related to Illness In Adulthood","datePublished":"2015-05-14T09:41:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:49:38.051Z","description":"By altering infant gut bacteria, the antibiotics make us more vulnerable to disease","url":"https://time.com/3858258/infant-childhood-antibiotics-adulthood-gut-bacteria-diseases-obesity/","keywords":["Research","Disease","study","Science topic"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9e71b278767f9feb/6987efb106f2c14aca338366/459913460.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sabrina Toppa","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/sabrina-toppa/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9e71b278767f9feb/6987efb106f2c14aca338366/459913460.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Many red and transparent medical capsules, filled with yellow medicine, pouring out of a brown bottle, displayed on a white table n Wuerzburg, Bavaria, Germany in December 2014.","caption":"Many red and transparent medical capsules, filled with yellow medicine, pouring out of a brown bottle, displayed on a white table n Wuerzburg, Bavaria, Germany in December 2014.","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/research/","name":"Research"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3858258/infant-childhood-antibiotics-adulthood-gut-bacteria-diseases-obesity/","name":"Giving Antibiotics to Infants is Strongly Related to Illness In Adulthood"}}]}] ```