14 DAY TRIAL // As surprising as this may sound, it turns out that letting children who are not yet one year old play in dirt and become exposed to dander and even germs is not such a bad thing after all.
On the contrary, scientists with the Johns Hopkins Children's Center in the United States say that exposure to dirt, germs, and dander during a child's first year of life has the potential to lower allergy and asthma risk.
Specifically, data at hand indicates that, when compared to children not exposed to mouse and cat dander and cockroach droppings before their first birthday, those exposed to all of these allergens are three times less likely to develop wheezing.
Since wheezing has been documented to be a precursor to asthma, it is believed that exposure to said allergens while at a very early age can also make a child less vulnerable to this medical condition.
What's more, it appears that, out of a study sample of 467 children, about 41% of those allergy-free and wheeze-free children had all grown up in allergen and bacteria-rich households, EurekAlert informs.
The John Hopkins Children's Center specialists explain that, all things considered, it could be that coming into contact with certain bacteria and allergens while still very young helps shape a child's immune system.
“Our study shows that the timing of initial exposure may be critical,” study author Robert Wood, M.D., with the Johns Hopkins Children's Center comments on these findings.
“What this tells us is that not only are many of our immune responses shaped in the first year of life, but also that certain bacteria and allergens play an important role in stimulating and training the immune system to behave a certain way,” he adds.