Babies and Exposure to Pets

Many young couples bring a pet into their home years before a baby is even in the picture these days. Women want to be in the workplace they want to grow their careers and make the decision to have children later in their lives then their mothers or grandmothers. Eventually the couple makes the decision to have a baby but the house is already owned by a dog or cat or two and the expectant parents worry not if the pet will except the intruder into it family or if the dog or cat will physically harm their baby but they worry about allergies to the pet.

Its very sad but one of the big reasons why pets are left at shelters is because  a new baby is on the way or a new baby just arrived. Researchers were curious if having pets in the home with infants made the babies more or less allergic to pets later in their lives. According to WebMD Researchers have noted that when children grow up in a home with a dog or cat they are less likely to develop allergies. The same is true for kids who live on a farm with large animals. In addition, higher levels of certain immune system chemicals indicate a stronger immune system activation, which will help keep them healthy as they get older. Now people who brought a cat or dog into their home as their first children before they were ready to have a baby don’t have to be upset over the baby sneezing after playing with the family dog. Or being worried about an allergic reaction after the family cat licked the baby’s face. Hopefully with this new information people will be more willing to keep their pets around instead of turn them over to shelters. Pet provide so many positive experiences in a child’s young life it is a shame if they are taken away for the wrong reasons. Obviously if the child is highly allergic and none of the tips found in this post about lowering the allergen level in your home or any other ideas your pediatrician might have including medication don’t work then the parents need to do what they feel is best. But that should only happen in very few cases.

“This research provides further evidence that experiences in the first year of life are associated with health status later in life, and that early life pet exposure does not put most children at risk of being sensitized to these animals later in life,” researcher Ganesa Wegienka, PhD, of the department of biostatistics and research epidemiology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, said in a news release.

Researchers also studied cats in the homes of infants at risk for asthma. They found was that children with cats in their home when they were infants were significantly less likely to develop asthma as they got older. There is one exception and it is important to note so that care and precautions can be taken . Children whose mothers have a cat allergy are three times more likely to develop asthma after early exposure to cats.

Allergies seem to be genetic more then environmental. My mom is highly allergic to cats she some how began develop the allergy when she was pregnant with me. My parents had two cats Coffee and Poco who were around before I was born. I really don’t remember them at all even though they were still around after my sister was born. I am allergic to cats if they scratch or bite but nothing like my mom who knows if someone in the room had a cat on their lap earlier in the day. My sister on the other hand has 2 cats with no problems.