Pet dogs and cats can reduce risk of child food allergies: study

This deserves a-paws.

Having a family dog or cat could be the key to preventing your child from developing a food allergy, new research has found.

According to a Japanese study published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, children exposed to these pets from an early age lowered their risk of certain food allergies by around 15% compared to children who lived in homes without these animals.

Food allergies affect an estimated 8% of US children, about two students per classroom, according to the CDC, which warns that strictly avoiding the allergen is the only way to prevent a reaction.

“Food allergy is a condition that reduces the quality of life of patients and their families, imposes a significant medical cost burden, and is a major trigger of anaphylaxis, which is sometimes fatal,” lead researcher Dr. Hisao Okabe, of Fukushima Medical University, told SWNS.

Researchers tracked over 66,000 children from prenatal development until they were 3 years old.

They found kids who had been exposed to indoor dogs when they were in the womb or early in infancy were less likely to be allergic to eggs, milk, and nuts.

Indoor dogs lowered the risk more than dogs that primarily lived outdoors, the study found.

Children with cats were less likely to develop allergies to eggs, wheat, and soybeans.

“Continued dog and cat exposure from fetal development to infancy was estimated to reduce the incidence risk of food allergies,” Okabe said.

The study also noted that hamster exposure could increase the risk of having a nut allergy.

“The increased incidence risk of nut allergy with hamster exposure may be explained by the fact that hamsters feed on nuts,” the researchers wrote.

“In other words, we assumed that nut allergens can … sensitize infants through physical contact or house dust.”

Fish, fruit and crustacean allergies seem unaffected by exposure to any pet species.

In explaining the purported link between pet exposure and food allergies, researchers pointed to the so-called “hygiene hypothesis” that says kids should be exposed to germs to develop healthy immune systems.

“The notion that early-life exposure to pets or older siblings provides an immunological benefit to human health stems from the hygiene hypothesis, first proposed in 1989 and subsequently supported by several epidemiological studies,” Okabe said.

The researchers also explored the theory that pet exposure can affect the infant’s gut microorganisms directly or indirectly through changes in the parent’s gut bacteria.

A 2019 study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found people with food allergies have distinct gut microbiomes.

The authors of the new research also postulated that having pets can increase endotoxin levels in the home, which in turn may enhance immunity. Endotoxins are toxins within bacterial cell walls. 

And third, pet exposure has been reported to affect the risk of atopic dermatitis, also known as eczema, a major risk factor for the incidence of food allergies.

The authors noted some limitations to their study.

One was they relied on a doctor’s diagnosis reported by the child’s parents. The researchers did not perform their own allergy tests on the kids.

“Nevertheless, the findings of this study shall aid in the design of future studies,” the authors wrote.