HAVING two or more pets may protect infants against allergies, a study of 474 American children suggests.
After monitoring the children from birth to the age of six or seven, Dennis Ownby’s team at the Medical College of Georgia found that infants in homes with at least two animals were up to 77 per cent less likely to develop allergies (Journal of the American Medical Association, vol 288, p 963).
The close contact with pets may expose infants to bacteria that help to skew their immune systems away from allergies. But why isn’t one pet enough? “We think there…
