Giving your baby a few germs by sucking on his pacifier, baby’s new health gesture? Researchers at Queen Silvia Children’s Hospital in Sweden do not recommend taking the test at home yet, but the study they just carried out suggests that parental saliva could help the baby to heal. protect against asthma andeczema. 184 children, most of whom had an allergic parent and therefore likely to be allergic, were followed for three years. When the babies were six months old, 65 parents claimed to have the reflex to clean their child’s pacifier by putting it in their mouths. The rest, the majority, cleaned it with water. By the age of 18 months, babies whose pacifiers received saliva from their parents had a 63% lower risk of having eczema and 88% lower risk of having asthma. This study suggests that children’s bacteria may strengthen the child’s immune system. But more research still needs to be done.
Until you are sure you can lick your child’s pacifier, you can offer a dog. The microbes that live on the animal would help children strengthen their immune system and protect them against asthma, according to a recent study from the University of California-San Francisco.
