Often the culprit that is setting off the child's sneezing, watery eyes and itchy skin is none other than his best friend--the family pet. This explains why it may be so hard to follow the doctor's orders and find Fluffy a new home.

But there may be good news for allergic animal lovers. A recent study has found that keeping a pet might actually help young children.

The research found that children with allergic tendencies who grow up with a pet right from the start can develop immunity to pet allergens.

The study was led by Christine Cole Johnson, Ph.D., a senior research epidemiologist with Henry Ford Health System, Detroit, Mich., and followed 724 children from 1987 through 1996. Researchers collected data prenatally, at birth, and at regular intervals until age 7. Data collected included blood tests to look for antibodies to pet allergens, and skin reaction tests to see if the child was hypersensitive to the allergens.

The results, which were published in March 2000, found that children who had lived with a dog or cat in the first year of life were less likely to have a positive test for the antibody to either dog or cat allergen. They were also less likely to have a skin test reaction to the dog or cat allergen.

"This study indicates that having a pet around when a child is very young may influence the development of a child's immune system," Dr. Johnson said in a press release.

Allergies are thought to be caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors, explained Thomas Platts-Mills, MD, Ph.D., director of the Asthma and Allergic Diseases Center at the University of Virginia.Being allergic in general is genetic, inherited from the mother's side, he said. But which allergens you become exposed to--and allergic to--is environmental,

"Traditionally allergists have recommended that expectant parents who have a history of allergies and want to reduce the risk for their children should not have a pet in the household," Dr. Johnson stated.

While more research is still needed, Dr. Johnson said, based on her study findings, she would now tell an expectant parent with a history of allergies that it would be safe to keep the family pet.

Dr. Platts-Mills agreed. Last year he was involved in a study of 226 children, aged 12 to 14, which showed children with a family history of allergy who were around large amounts of allergen often were not allergic themselves.

By measuring the amounts of cat allergen in the children's homes, he concluded that small amounts seem to trigger allergy. But children in homes with large amounts of allergen seem to have fewer allergy-related antibodies.

The study indicated that children who live with a pet cat become tolerant. If parents-to-be already have a pet, Dr. Platts-Mills feels they should keep it--the child might develop that immunity.

He only recommends parents consider finding a new home for a pet if they have an allergic child who's having symptoms. Even then, he suggests that they try other measures first, such as frequent cleaning of the home, bathing the pet, and using special bedding in the child's room.

But the evidence is not strong enough that Dr. Platts-Mills would tell expectant parents to purposely go out and get a pet just to prevent allergies in their baby.

Despite this newfound protective quality, in some cases, pets can do more harm than good. Children with allergies sometimes also suffer from a more severe condition: asthma. This condition, characterized by shortness of breath and wheezing, causes the airways to inflame and restrict air intake. Doctors have found there is a strong relationship between asthma and allergies.

Pets have not been proven to cause asthma, but they can aggravate it. Although Dr. Platts-Mills' study found asthma was less likely in homes with high levels of cat allergen, another study, conducted by Bruce Lanphear, MD, MPH, director of general pediatric research at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, found that pets are a risk factor for asthma.

In the study, Dr. Lanphear and several other doctors compared skin test results in children, aged 6 to16, collected from 1988 to1994 as part of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III. They found that children with a history of pet allergy--who either avoided pets or gave them away because of these allergies--were 2.4 times more likely to also have doctor-diagnosed asthma. In addition, children with pets in the household were 1.5 times more likely to have asthma.

But just because there is a pet in the house and your child has asthma or allergies doesn't always mean the pet is to blame. A skin test can help determine the cause of the allergy, sometimes on children as young as 3. "It may not be that the child is allergic to dog allergen," Dr. Lanphear said.

If the child is having a reaction to the pet, parents have to make some decisions. Strong, frequent reactions, including wheezing, might warrant more drastic measures, like removing allergen-filled carpeting or possibly even finding the pet a new home, in severe cases. If the pet is causing only a mild reaction, it may be manageable with medication, Dr. Lanphear said.

Since pets have been linked to worsening asthma in some studies, if there is a history of asthma or allergy in the family, new parents might be better off waiting until after the child is born to decide on getting a pet, he added.

Doctors now believe that, theoretically, they could give children a vaccine by mouth or injection that would make them immune to a certain allergy, like cat allergy. But Dr. Platts-Mills said it is unlikely that new parents will want their babies to get such an injection as young as would be required--before babies are 1 year old.

For more information:

American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology

Furry Pets, Allergic Guests Make for Awkward Evenings

Solutions Abound for Pet Allergy Sufferers

*Article courtesy of VetCentric.com
Originally published November 20, 2005
Written by: Christina Mehra, Staff Writer @ VetCentric
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