Living With A Pet Cat Or Indoor Dog Can Reduce The Development Of Food Allergies In Infants

Is growing up in a biodiverse environment necessary to develop a healthy immune system?

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Do you have any babies or toddlers? Do you want to reduce their likelihood of developing food allergies? If so, you may want to get a pet cat or an indoor dog to help with that.

Food allergies: who gets them?

The most common food allergies occur in babies and young children is to eggs, cow’s milk, and peanuts. Other common food allergies in young children are wheat, soy, and tree nuts. In developed nations, the prevalence of food allergies has been identified in more than 10% of children under the age of 18, and they’re still increasing. Many allergies may be short-term in children and the food may be tolerated after the ages of three or four, but some allergies, particularly those triggered by peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish or fish, can last a lifetime.

There are some things that parents can do that might reduce the likelihood that their babies and toddlers develop food allergies. For example, current medical guidance suggests that providing a baby with small ‘tastes’ of foods that contain peanuts, eggs, cow’s milk and wheat from the age of three months can reduce the risk of allergies in those children. But there are other things that parents can do to reduce food allergies in their children, too.

A pet cat or indoor dog can reduce food allergies in babies and toddlers

Previous research (ref) suggested there may be a link between exposure to a dog or to farm animals during pregnancy and early childhood and the reduction of food allergies in children.

To investigate if there’s a link between exposure to indoor pets and food allergies, a large team of Japanese scientists, spearheaded by Hisao Okabe, a pediatrician at Fukushima Medical University, investigated and found that babies and toddlers develop fewer food allergies when an indoor pet lives alongside them. Additionally, this study also found this relationship for pregnant women who lived with either a cat or an indoor dog. These findings are based on an analysis of 66,215 children for whom data on exposure to various pets and food allergies were available. About 22% of these children were exposed to pets during the fetal period (most commonly indoor dogs and cats).

Probably the most interesting aspect of this study is that the researchers had a large enough overall sample size that they could do statistical analyses for each pet species, a variety of foods, and timing of pet exposure. These analyses found that continued exposure to dogs or cats during pregnancy or in early infancy reduced the risk of food allergies until the age of three.

The research team found that different pet species may be protective against different food allergies. Exposure to indoor dogs was estimated to reduce the incidence risk of egg, cow’s milk, and nut allergies, and exposure to cats was estimated to reduce the incidence risk of egg, wheat, and soybean allergies. On the other hand, children exposed to outdoor dogs did not show any statistical differences in food allergies.

Living with other pets, such as birds, turtles or hamsters, was not linked to any statistically significant reductions in developing food allergies. However, when the analysis was limited to just nut allergies, it estimated that exposure to hamsters increased the incidence risk of nut allergy by 93%. But because so few families live with pet hamsters, this could be a statistical artifact created by the small sample size.

“The increased incidence risk of nut allergy with hamster exposure may be explained by the fact that hamsters feed on nuts”, the researchers explained in their study. “In other words, we assumed that nut allergens can … sensitize infants through physical contact or house dust.”

This study did not find any correlation between any pet species and fish, fruit and shellfish allergies.

Why are indoor pets so protective against developing food allergies?

It’s important to keep in mind that this study’s findings are correlative rather than causal: exposure to indoor pets was not proven to reduce food allergies in babies and toddlers. Further, this study doesn’t reveal whether something about the pet owners themselves or their habits may instead the true link between pets and the lowered risk of food allergies. Additionally, pet owners are a self-selecting group: families where one or more person already has pet allergies are not likely to live with pets.

Although this study should be interpreted cautiously, these findings are quite interesting and do support previous research into food allergies, suggesting that a biodiverse environment may play an as-yet unknown but essential role for children as they develop a healthy immune system.

Source:

Hisao Okabe, Koichi Hashimoto, Mika Yamada, Takashi Ono, Kazufumi Yaginuma, Yohei Kume, Mina Chishiki, Akiko Sato, Yuka Ogata, Karin Imaizumi, Tsuyoshi Murata, Hyo Kyozuka, Kosei Shinoki, Seiji Yasumura, Hidekazu Nishigori, Keiya Fujimori, Mitsuaki Hosoya, and the Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS) (2023). Associations between fetal or infancy pet exposure and food allergies: The Japan Environment and Children’s Study, PLoS ONE | doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0282725

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