Sucking on Your Baby’s Pacifier May Prevent Allergies

Pacifier
  • Sucking on your child’s pacifier to clean it may reduce their risk of developing allergies like asthma and eczema, according to a study at Queen Silvia Children’s Hospital in Sweden.
  • 18-month-old children whose parents cleaned their pacifiers with their own mouths had less likelihood of developing allergies than children whose parents cleaned their pacifiers with tap or boiling water.
  • “Exposure of the infant to parental saliva might accelerate development of complex oral/pharyngeal microbiota that…might beneficially affect tolerogenic handling of antigens by the oral/pharyngeal lymphoid tissues,” study conductor Bill Hesselmar, MD, PhD, wrote.
  • The study also found that children who were delivered vaginally—a process which transfers beneficial bacteria from mother to infant—led to “microbial stimulation,” which stymied allergy development.
  • In an unrelated study, the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Imumunology found that pregnant women on the Mediterranean Diet reduced the risk of their child developing asthma symptoms by 80 percent. 

Get More Information at MedPage Today and Reuters Health.

 

 

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