Early Exposure to Pets Does Not Increase Children's Risk of Allergies, Study Finds; Evidence Suggests It May Actually Reduce Likelihood

A new study reveals that keeping a dog or cat in the home does not increase children's risk of becoming allergic to the pets. Parents of young children frequently want to know whether keeping a dog or cat in their home will increase the risk of their children becoming allergic to their pets. Young men whose families had kept an indoor dog during their first year of life had about half the risk of becoming sensitized to dogs compared to those whose families did not keep a dog in the first year of life. Both men and women were about half as likely to be sensitized to cats if they had lived with a cat in the first year of life, compared to those who did not live with cats. . read more.