Healthyliving Pets Asthma

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There's plenty of good things that can come from children having pets. But kids who have asthma often miss out on the experience because they're told it will make their asthma worse. Even when there's no asthma, just a family history of it, parents often rule a pet out because of fears it could help bring the disease on.

But recent research suggests having a cat or dog in the house might not be as much of an asthma hazard as previously thought.

Asthma can be triggered by allergies. So if you're asthmatic and know you're allergic to pets, there's no doubt avoiding pets is important if you don't want to make your asthma worse. But what about children who don't have a pet allergy, just a higher-than-usual risk of developing one -- either because they already have asthma, or there's a family history of it. Ask your doctor if a pet's a good idea in these circumstances and odds are you'll be told it's not.

Until recently it was thought that children with a tendency to allergies became allergic to things like pets, the more they were exposed to them. But recent research suggests that's actually not the case. Being around pets a lot doesn't increase your risk of becoming allergic to them. In fact, for very young children, it might work the other way round.

It's becoming clear that children who share their home with a pet before the age of three are actually less likely to develop pet allergies -- even if they're allergy prone. Most of the studies have been on homes with cats or dogs, but it's likely the same applies to other types of animals if the exposure to them is high.

There's something about being around animals as your immune system develops, that seems to be protective.
The bottom line is, if you're confident your child doesn't have pet allergies, the old advice to avoid pets can be ignored. As for getting a cat or dog just to ward off a potential problem, no-one's yet suggesting that. Rather the findings simply mean you can decide if a pet's for you based on the same factors any family would consider.

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• Healthyliving
• Pets
• Astma