Have you wondered whether
to get your child a pet or not?
Does your family have a history
of allergies and have you been
told by your pediatrician it’s
not a good idea?
There’s interesting news
from the Medical College of
George (MCG), evidence from
a new study about children and
pets published in the Journal
of the American Medical Association
that having pets may actually
help with allergies.
Dr. Dennis R. Ownby, chief
of MCG’s Section of Allergy
and immunology has followed
474 babies from birth to age
7 and has found that children
exposed to two or more in-door
pets were half as likely to
develop common allergies.
“Allergists have been
trained for generations that
dogs and cats in the house are
bad because they increase the
risk of you becoming allergic
to them; we know that before
you become allergic to something,
you have to be repeatedly exposed
to it.”
He and his staff were just
as surprised at the results
of their study as you may be
reading it! “The data
didn’t look the way it
was supposed to; as a matter
of fact, it was very strongly
the opposite of what we expected
to find,” said Ownby.
Ownby speculates that the reason
so many kids have allergies
and asthma now is because we
live too clean a life.
When kids play with cats and
dogs, he says, they get licked.
And that lick transfers a lot
of Gram-negative bacteria that
may change the way the child’s
immune system responds, says
Ownby. The “lick”
gives them exposure to higher
levels of what’s called
“endotoxins,” the
breakdown toxin from the Gram-negative
bacteria.
According to an article from
the Medical College of Georgia,
studies from southern Germany
and Switzerland are confirming
that children of farmers, regularly
exposed to animals, have less
allergies than city kids.
Check it out with your pediatrician,
but it may be getting a pet
or two would be beneficial for
your children's allergy resistance,
as well as all the other benefits
we drive from our beloved pets.
About the Author
(c)Susan Dunn, MA Clinical Psychology,
The EQ Coach, http://www.susandunn.
cc . Coaching for all your needs,
including increasing your child's
emotional intelligence and your
own. EQ matters more to success
and happiness than IQ and it
can be learned. mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc
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