Growing up with cats good for allergies

New York - Allowing cats to be in a child's bedroom, starting in the first year of life, may prevent the later development of allergic asthma and hay fever, new research suggests.

Although many reports have shown an anti-asthma effect for early cat exposure, others have actually tied such exposure to an increased risk of asthma. These seemingly contradictory findings may relate to the timing and amount of exposure.

In the current study, Dr. Rudiger von Kries, from the Institute for Social Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine in Munchen, Germany, and colleagues evaluated the effect of pet exposure on asthma risk in 8216 children, 5 to 7 years of age, living in rural regions of Bavaria.

Among children with pets, exposure was classified as pet keeping in the first year of life but not later on, continuous exposure from the first year of life onwards, or current pet keeping but not during the first year of life. In addition, the parents of such children were asked whether the pet was allowed in the child's bedroom.

In general, pet exposure had no bearing on the risk of allergies, the researchers report in the journal Allergy. However, kids who were continuously exposed to cats and had cats that roamed in their bedroom were 67 percent less likely than other children to develop allergic asthma and 45 percent less likely to develop hay fever.

"We hypothesize that allowing cats in the child's bedroom from the first year of life onwards might be an indicator of early and intensive exposure to cats which appears to protect against the development of (allergic) asthma," the authors note.

Further research on the relationship between pets and allergies "should focus on early and intensive exposure," they add. -- Reuters

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