That advice is courtesy of my Rottweiler, but I endorse
it, too.
Several very good recent studies have indicated rather
strongly that pets in the house are linked with better overall health in the
kids in general (meaning that some kids might do worse, but most kids will
likely do better with a pet in the house).
The latest such study published in the journal, Pediatrics, looked at 393 kids from
birth to the age of one with questionnaires for the parents about the number of
pets these kids had and the number of colds, etc they had suffered.
The evidence was pretty clear: kids with a dog in the
house were healthier.
They suffered fewer infections – colds, ear infections,
other upper respiratory problems – and they took fewer antibiotics than kids
with no pet in the house.
And while having a cat led to slightly better outcomes,
having a dog in the house was a particularly strong link with better health up
to the age of 1.
Interestingly, the more time the dog spent outdoors, the
better the results, perhaps because outside dogs bring more dirt, dust,
shcmutz, etc into the house to stimulate and infant’s immune system.
Bottom line: we live in a world of schmutz and the sooner
we adapt to it, the better our chances of living well with it.
