Multiple studies have shown that keeping pets when a child is an infant can protect them from developing allergies later in life. Researchers in this trial investigated if there is a dose-dependent association between keeping a cat and dog during the first year of a child’s life and subsequent allergy development.
Source: PLOS ONE, December 29, 2018. Link. A dose-response association was seen, with less allergic manifestations (any of asthma, allergic rhinoconjunctivitis, or eczema) with increasing number of household cats and dogs during the first year of life. In the Cross-Sectional Cohort, allergy ever decreased from 49% in those with no pets to zero in those with five or more pets (P-value for trend 0.038), and from 32% to zero for allergy last year (P-value for trend 0.006).