Babies Living With Pets Develop Fewer Allergies

Contrary to popular belief, studies have shown that babies living with pets are less likely to develop allergies to pets as they grow older.

So if you have a child less than a year old but you don’t have a four-legged friend yet, this is the ideal time to adopt him.

Children, pets and allergies

The times when professionals recommended keeping critters away from cats and dogs to avoid allergies seem to be over.

According to research published in the journal Clinical & Experimental Allergy , babies living in homes with kittens are half as likely to be allergic to these animals when they reach adolescence.

As for dogs, that risk was reduced in boys, but not in girls. The reason is unknown, but experts estimate that it may be due to the different way in which they are related to dogs.

Less risk of allergy for babies living with pets

Other research data indicates that exposure to pets only after the child’s first year of life has no effect on allergy risk.

For this reason, researchers assume that early exposure to pet allergens and related bacteria brings the following benefits :

• Strengthens the immune system.
• Get the body used to these substances.
• Helps children develop natural immunity.

The study was carried out by a team led by Dr. Ganesa Wegienka, an epidemiologist who works at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit (United States).

Investigation details

The research focused on 566 children and their parents. And, while this is not the only study that addresses the issue, the difference was that it was followed up to adolescence. When the former babies turned 18, blood samples were taken.

Thus, it was found that adolescents who lived with a cat during their first year of life had a 48% lower risk of allergy to felines and that those who lived with a dog had a 50% lower risk.

In short, although allergy is caused by intolerance to a substance in the environment, everything seems to indicate that if this exposure is early, tolerance will actually occur.

In the same tune

For its part, a study carried out at the University Hospital of Kuopio (Finland) reached similar conclusions in relation to babies living with pets and their relationship with allergies and, in this case, infections.

400 children were examined during their first year of life. Thus it was concluded that those who lived with a dog, or to a lesser extent with a cat :

• They suffered 30 percent fewer respiratory infections.
• They had 50 percent fewer ear infections.
• They healed faster.
• They needed less antibiotic treatment.

A bit of grime doesn’t hurt

The Finnish researchers also observed that the most protective effects occurred when pets had contact with the outside of the home, where there is supposed to be more exposure to allergens.

All paths seem to lead, then, to the so-called hygiene hypothesis, which states that the less clean the environment is in the first years of life, the less possibility of allergies.

It is simple. When there are more infections – which does not necessarily mean diseases – the immune system is so busy with them that it does not even remember to cause allergies.

More pets and fewer allergies

The extreme obsession with a place where asepsis reigns – prodded by constant advertising of cleaning products – seems to be achieving the opposite effect to the one sought.

We get sicker and have more allergies because our body does not learn to defend itself from an early age.

So relax a bit. If a baby is about to come into your life, don’t even think about giving your pet a gift. And, if you don’t have a furry, four-legged friend yet, it doesn’t hurt to repeat it:  adopt one.