A new study said that babies exposed to dogs and farm animals may be less likely to develop asthma by the age six.
According to the Swedish research, dog exposure during infancy was associated with a 13 percent lower risk of asthma in school-age children, while farm animal exposure was linked to a 52 percent risk reduction.
Lead study author Tove Fall of Uppsala University in Sweden explained that while the results do not prove that puppies prevent asthma, but they do suggest that parents may not need to give away the family pet for fear their baby might develop asthma from being around the dog.
Fall added that having a pet is likely to enrich the children’s life in many ways, and perhaps enriching the child’s microbiome and immune system.
This study is the latest one to support the notion that kids need a little dirt to prime their immune systems.
The analysis included about 276,000 school-age kids, including nearly 22,000 with a parent who owned a dog during the child's first year of life and about 950 with a parent who worked with farm animals. Overall, about 11,600 had an asthmatic event during their seventh year of life.