Children Living With Pet Dogs Or Cats ‘Less Likely To Have Food Allergies’

Babies who live with pet cats or dogs may be less likely to develop food allergies as they grow older than children in homes without pets, research suggests.

Exposure to dogs is associated with a lower risk of egg, milk and nut allergies, while exposure to cats is associated with a lower risk of egg, wheat and soy allergies, an analysis by More than 65,000 babies from Japan were found.

But children who keep hamsters as pets may be at increased risk of nut allergies, researchers have discovered.

The findings, published in the journal Plos One, could help design future studies on children and allergies, scientists in Japan said.

Around one in 12 young children in the UK are thought to have food allergies.

Exposure to farm animals during pregnancy and childhood is linked to a lower risk of food allergies, previous research has shown.

In the latest study, Hisao Okabe from Fukushima Medical University used data from 66,215 children and their mothers who were part of the Japan Children and Environment Study.

About 22% were exposed to domestic pets – mainly dogs and cats – while in the womb.

Children with indoor pets had “significantly reduced rates of food allergy” compared with children with outdoor dogs, researchers found.

Meanwhile, children exposed to voles – 0.9% of the total group studied – had “significantly higher rates of nut allergy”.

The findings are based on self-reported data and it is not possible to determine whether the association between pet exposure and food allergy rates is causal, the researchers said.

They wrote: “This study showed that the association between pet exposure during foetal development or early infancy and the incidence risk of food allergies until the age of three years differs depending on the combination of two factors: pet species and allergen type.

“Dog exposure might reduce the incidence risks of egg, milk and nut allergies; cat exposure might reduce the risks of egg, wheat and soybean allergies; hamster exposure might increase the risk of nut allergy.

“However, this study was a questionnaire-based survey and we did not perform an objective assessment.

“Further studies using oral food challenges are required to more accurately assess the incident of food allergies.”