A study published in Pediatrics offers a disarmingly simple (though slightly labor-intensive) strategy to lower the likelihood of childhood allergies.
Investigators in Sweden looked at the home environment of about 1,000 seven and eight-year-olds. Some of the children had eczema linked to allergy.
Dishwashing Techniques:
In the homes where dishes were washed by hand, fewer than one-fourth of the youngsters had eczema, while nearly two fifths of those in families that used dishwashers suffered with the skin condition. For asthma, the numbers were 2% of kids eating off hand-washed dishes versus 7% of those whose dishes went into the machine.
Other factors that appeared to be linked to a lower chance of developing eczema or other childhood allergies included eating locally grown foods bought from nearby farms and eating fermented foods frequently.
Hygiene Hypothesis:
The scientists suspect that these findings support the hygiene hypothesis that babies’ immune systems need to encounter germs during a vulnerable early period or they will be diverted to attacking allergens instead. They admit, however, that more research is needed before parents will be urged to expose their children to pets, farm animals or other sources of germs.
[Pediatrics, online Feb. 23, 2015]
Daphne Miller, MD, author of Farmacology, discussed some of the evidence for the hygiene hypothesis in her book and our interview with her in Show 959.
