Type of source: Newspaper article on the internet

Kids' best friends: Pets help prevent allergies

August 28, 2002

By Gina Greene (CNN)

Flying in the face of conventional wisdom, a new study shows that children who grow up with pets in the home have a reduced risk of developing common allergies.

"It was very strongly the opposite of what we expected to find," said lead researcher Dr. Dennis R. Ownby, who is chief of allergy and immunology at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. "Allergists have been trained for generations that dogs and cats in the house were bad because they increased the risk of you becoming allergic to them; we know that before you become allergic to something you have to be repeatedly exposed to it."

But the study, released in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association -- which tracked a group of 474 babies from birth to about age 7 -- found differently. Researchers found that the 184 children in the group exposed to two or more dogs or cats in infancy were half as likely to develop common allergies than the 220 children who had no pets in the home.

Notes /summary:

Most people believe that having dogs and cats in the house can cause allergies. However, a new study found the opposite result. The study looked at almost 500 children from birth to age seven. Children who had no pets in the home ended up developing allergies twice as often as children who did have pets. This was a very surprising result. Perhaps having pets can prevent pet allergies.

Reference:

             Greene, G. (2002, August 28). Kids' best friends: Pets help prevent allergies. Retrieved
  January 31, 2004, from CNN web site: http://edition.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/parenting/08/27/kid.pet.allergies/index.html