Exposure to cats early on leads to eczema in children

Exposure to cats early on leads to eczema in children

Exposure to cats soon after birth seems to increase the risk of developing eczema in children, according to US researchers. But the researchers also found that being exposed to two or more dogs seemed to confer a protective effect on the children.

Lead researcher Esmeralda Morales from the University of Arizona in Tucson and colleagues followed 486 children from their birth. Parents were asked to report how many cats and dogs were at home when the child was born. The children were then followed for a year to see which of them developed eczema. Researchers found 27 percent of 134 children who had cats in their homes developed eczema by the age of one year as compared to 17 percent of the 286 without cats in their households.

Of the 76 children who had two or more dogs as pets, only 10 had eczema as compared to 71 of the 321 who did not have dogs at home. "Other studies have found that having cats or dogs at home seems to be protective against allergic diseases, so we expected to have similar findings," Dr Morales said.

"Pets are a source of a compound called endotoxin, and if a child is exposed to endotoxin early in life, the immune system may be skewed away from developing an allergic profile." She admitted that their study seemed to add to the questions that seem to link pets, allergies and asthma. "Since there is a lot of contradictory data out there already, clearly it's a topic that needs further research," she said.

The findings of the study were presented at the International Conference of the American Thoracic Society.

Reacting to the study, Dr Sue Lewis-Jones, spokeswoman for the British Skin Foundation said that while the study was definitely interesting, it was a little too early to draw any conclusions, "We should be cautious about removing pets from the home environment, because children who are currently tolerant of pet hair may go on to develop an allergy when re-exposed to animal hair at a later stage," she said. "There is a lot of contradictory data around this subject and it is definitely one that would benefit from further research."