Dogs appear to protect some babies from allergies

Retired R.N. · Dec 9, 2006

I saw this on the news the other night and found it interesting. Thought I'd share...
WIStv.com Columbia, SC: Dogs appear to protect some babies from allergies
(National-NBC) December 7, 2006 - Living with two or more dogs appears to protect some babies from allergies, according to a new study from the University of Cincinnati.
Kids who lived with multiple dogs were more than two times less likely than other children to wheeze. The kids also lived with high levels of endotoxins - which are compounds produced by bacteria commonly found in feces.
Researchers say they aren't sure how or why the children were protected. Studies are ongoing.

This is a topic that pops up in the popular press from time to time. I have always wondered if the people whose babies started wheezing got rid of the dogs immediately, or if the families who had one or both parents with a tendency to allergies just never got dogs in the first place.

Multicollinearity, BSN, RN · Dec 9, 2006

This is the Hygiene Hypothesis. The idea is that living in a quite clean environment without 'crud' challenging the immune system allows the immune system to go into overdrive against things that really aren't trouble, like pollen, dust etc. Studies have demonstrated that children raised on farms have fewer allergies. Their immune systems are busy filtering all the crud on the farm so they don't turn against them and react to things they shouldn't.

I read about these things because of my allergies and asthma.

Hygiene Hypothesis: Are We Too "Clean" for Our Own Good?

BSNtobe2009 · Dec 9, 2006

That actually doesn't suprise me at all. I have long since believed that "allergy kids" are a growing epidemic that is part of our society where kids are moving indoors, sitting in front of the TV or computer all day, and being anti-bacterialized to death.

I don't use anti-bacterial anything except a cleaner for my kitchen countertops and I use regular air filters in my home instead of the Hepa...same with the vaccum cleaner.

Allergies such as this and Asthma, are UNHEARD OF in 3rd world countries, and they have grown substantially since I was a child. When I was in grade school, there was this ONE kid in every grade level who was the "allergy kid" and allergic to everything. Now kids sit in the school yard and compare allergies and mediciations.

When my daughter was 8 months old, her nanny was taking her outside in the Spring, and told me that she probably needed to see a doctor for allergies because "her eyes and nose was running, and you know the pollen count was high today"....now, her own granddaughter was an 'allergy kid' who was on all kinds of meds...you know what I told her? "Take the baby OUTSIDE more." She did and the following Spring the kid has no problems.

I'm not going to say that there are not children who don't have legitimate problems with allergies. However, I am forever alarmed at the parents that at the first sign of an ongoing sniffle the Pediatricians are shoving meds down a kid's throat.

They will never get over, what they are not exposed to.