Did anyone see the TIME article?

[E]

Did anyone see the TIME article?

From Time Magazine...

Allergies: The Two-Dog Trick
Here's a reason to think twice about giving antibiotics to kids: researchers
of the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit found that by age 7, children who
received antibiotics such as penicillin in their first six months were 1.5
times as likely to develop allergies and more than twice as likely to
develop asthma as kids who didn't get the drugs. Also at higher risk for
allergies were children who were breast-fed for more than four months and
those whose mothers had a history of allergies. The study followed 448
youngsters suffering allergies to pets, ragweed, grass and dust mites.
Researchers don't know the precise link between antibiotics and allergies,
but they think the drugs may interfere with the development of the immune
system. One thing that helped ward off allergies and asthma: having more
than two pets (cats or dogs) around in the child's first year. _By Sora
Song

--
Edith
oht nak

[Dawn Lawson]

E wrote:

> Did anyone see the TIME article?
>
> From Time Magazine...
>
> Allergies: The Two-Dog Trick
> Here's a reason to think twice about giving antibiotics to kids: researchers
> of the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit found that by age 7, children who
> received antibiotics such as penicillin in their first six months were 1.5
> times as likely to develop allergies and more than twice as likely to
> develop asthma as kids who didn't get the drugs.

Ok, I can see that link. (Tho I don't consider Time to be a good place
to get scientific data...) ;-)

Also at higher risk for
> allergies were children who were breast-fed for more than four months

But this I don't get. Is it a typo? Bfding for MORE than 4 months
increases the risk for allergies?? That seems counter intuitive.

and
> those whose mothers had a history of allergies. The study followed 448
> youngsters suffering allergies to pets, ragweed, grass and dust mites.
> Researchers don't know the precise link between antibiotics and allergies,
> but they think the drugs may interfere with the development of the immune
> system. One thing that helped ward off allergies and asthma: having more
> than two pets (cats or dogs) around in the child's first year. _By Sora
> Song

I'd theorise that antibiotics interfere with gut flora and reduce the
exposure to mild "pathogens", just as being "too clean" can increase
the risk of asthma and allergies, according to an English researcher who
is apparently considering a vaccine with soil microbes for those
children who live in sanitized, anti-bacterial product laden environments.

Dawn, who has no worries that Sprog is too clean =8-0 ;-)

[Clare Elliott]

On Tue, 14 Oct 2003 01:47:23 GMT, "E" >
wrote:

>Did anyone see the TIME article?
>
>From Time Magazine...
>
>Allergies: The Two-Dog Trick
>Here's a reason to think twice about giving antibiotics to kids: researchers
>of the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit found that by age 7, children who
>received antibiotics such as penicillin in their first six months were 1.5
>times as likely to develop allergies and more than twice as likely to
>develop asthma as kids who didn't get the drugs. Also at higher risk for

<delurk>

<snip> missing from the Time article is the info that the researchers
aren't sure whether the asthma is a consequence of the antibiotics, as
opposed to those children who are more susceptible (sp?) to RTIs and
other infections being more likely to develop asthma later.

I think that this came from the BBC web site (browser just died, so I
can't be sure)

Clare (relurking!)

[Tine Andersen]

"Clare Elliott" > skrev i en meddelelse
...
> <snip> missing from the Time article is the info that the researchers
> aren't sure whether the asthma is a consequence of the antibiotics, as
> opposed to those children who are more susceptible (sp?) to RTIs and
> other infections being more likely to develop asthma later.
>
One of our most famous (at least here in our small country) play writers had
a character say in 1800-something.

Granny can't fly, a stone can't fly: Granny is a stone.

You might be right about the above.

Tine, Denmark

[E]

Dawn Lawson wrote:
> E wrote:
>
>> Did anyone see the TIME article?
>>
>> From Time Magazine...
>>
>> Allergies: The Two-Dog Trick
>> Here's a reason to think twice about giving antibiotics to kids:
>> researchers of the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit found that by age
>> 7, children who received antibiotics such as penicillin in their
>> first six months were 1.5 times as likely to develop allergies and
>> more than twice as likely to develop asthma as kids who didn't get
>> the drugs.
>
> Ok, I can see that link. (Tho I don't consider Time to be a good place
> to get scientific data...) ;-)
>
> Also at higher risk for
>> allergies were children who were breast-fed for more than four months
>
> But this I don't get. Is it a typo? Bfding for MORE than 4 months
> increases the risk for allergies?? That seems counter intuitive.

I hope it's a typo! We'll see. My mom sent me the info. I don't know
about the background on the study.
--
Edith
oht nak


> and
>> those whose mothers had a history of allergies. The study followed
>> 448 youngsters suffering allergies to pets, ragweed, grass and dust
>> mites. Researchers don't know the precise link between antibiotics
>> and allergies, but they think the drugs may interfere with the
>> development of the immune system. One thing that helped ward off
>> allergies and asthma: having more than two pets (cats or dogs)
>> around in the child's first year. _By Sora Song
>
> I'd theorise that antibiotics interfere with gut flora and reduce the
> exposure to mild "pathogens", just as being "too clean" can increase
> the risk of asthma and allergies, according to an English researcher
> who is apparently considering a vaccine with soil microbes for those
> children who live in sanitized, anti-bacterial product laden
> environments.
>
> Dawn, who has no worries that Sprog is too clean =8-0 ;-)

[Jan Andrea]

"E" > wrote in message
...
> Did anyone see the TIME article?
<snip>
> One thing that helped ward off allergies and asthma: having more
> than two pets (cats or dogs) around in the child's first year. _By Sora
> Song

The thing that always bothers me about this statement is that it doesn't
seem to take into account that parents who are allergic to cats and dogs
will probably *not* have pets -- those same parents seem more likely to have
children who would be allergic. My husband and I are both allergic to cats
and dogs. We don't have pets. Surprise, surprise -- when we visit my
mother (who has 4 cats), Stephen reacts terribly (as do his parents). Not
because we don't have pets, but because we're allergic to them!

Argh.

Jan
--
Mum to Stephen, 22 May 2000
and Sophia, 2 October 2003
My personal page: http://www.sleepingbaby.net/jan/
Baby-related crafts: http://www.sleepingbaby.net/jan/Baby/crafts.html

[H Schinske]

wrote:

>The thing that always bothers me about this statement is that it doesn't
>seem to take into account that parents who are allergic to cats and dogs
>will probably *not* have pets -- those same parents seem more likely to have
>children who would be allergic.

I remember making the same complaint when this study came out, and IIRC I was
shown evidence that they did correct for the parents' allergies. I won't swear
to it though.

Our own case is the opposite, though -- I grew up with cats and dogs and am
allergic to both cat and dog dander. My kids have grown up entirely petless
thus far, and don't appear to be allergic to any animals (we have one set of
relatives with a cat, another with a dog, and much contact has occurred without
incident). Not that it proves a thing, of course.

No, actually, maybe I shouldn't count the kids as having grown up petless. I
forgot that we spent the better part of a year in my dad's house, with a
resident cat and visiting dog. Scratch that, no pun intended :-)

--Helen

[Tina]

"E" > wrote in message >...
> Did anyone see the TIME article?

<...>

Also at higher risk for
> allergies were children who were breast-fed for more than four months and
> those whose mothers had a history of allergies. The study followed 448
> youngsters suffering allergies to pets, ragweed, grass and dust mites.
> Researchers don't know the precise link between antibiotics and allergies,
> but they think the drugs may interfere with the development of the immune
> system. One thing that helped ward off allergies and asthma: having more
> than two pets (cats or dogs) around in the child's first year. _By Sora
> Song

I have seen this, or something like it, a few times before. I'll have
to go look again where I found it online, but there were a couple of
studies I saw, maybe through medline, which I joined for the sole
purpose of verifying this info., that also found an increase in
allergies in children breastfed for longer periods by allergic moms,
but everything I read found the increase after 10-12 months of
breastfeeding, not 4.

It kind of made sense to me, the way I understood it, that as a child
is building their own immune system, and relies less on the Mother's
system, the antibodies the mother has formed (in error) to things like
pollens, or animal dander, are ('accidentally') transferred. It may
sound crazy, but I know I read it in at least 2 places (obviously not
in the language paraphrased before). I'll have to email the friend
who asked me for the links and see if she still has them.

This news nearly made me wean my daughter this summer. I haven't yet,
but from time to time I still consider it (she's about 29 months, and
still nurses almost every day, but she's very sickly, and allergies
are her main problem, and mine).

I'll try to get hold of those links.

Tina.

[Melania]

<snip>

> > Also at higher risk for
> >> allergies were children who were breast-fed for more than four months
> >
> > But this I don't get. Is it a typo? Bfding for MORE than 4 months
> > increases the risk for allergies?? That seems counter intuitive.
>
> I hope it's a typo! We'll see. My mom sent me the info. I don't know
> about the background on the study.

See article at this link:
http://chealth.canoe.ca/health_news_detail.asp?channel_id=43&news_id=4775

Not a typo - my FIL, who has been a family practice doctor for thirty
years, and whose two children were both breastfed, has pointed out to
me that the research on breastfed (past 4 months) kids being more
asthma-prone has been around for a while, but it's not a popular
finding, so we don't hear a lot about it. I think Dawn's theory,
below, is right on the money. Anyway, my family is living proof that
statistical "facts" don't always apply personally: my mom and her four
siblings were all formula babies and four of the five suffer from
respiratory allergies (and they had dogs growing up). My generation of
the family have all been breastfed to at least a year (and some a lot
longer), and none of the ten of us has any allergies.

<snip>

> > I'd theorise that antibiotics interfere with gut flora and reduce the
> > exposure to mild "pathogens", just as being "too clean" can increase
> > the risk of asthma and allergies, according to an English researcher
> > who is apparently considering a vaccine with soil microbes for those
> > children who live in sanitized, anti-bacterial product laden
> > environments.
> >
> > Dawn, who has no worries that Sprog is too clean =8-0 ;-)

[Dawn Lawson]

Jan Andrea wrote:

> "E" > wrote in message
> ...
>
>>Did anyone see the TIME article?
>
> <snip>
>
>>One thing that helped ward off allergies and asthma: having more
>>than two pets (cats or dogs) around in the child's first year. _By Sora
>>Song
>
>
> The thing that always bothers me about this statement is that it doesn't
> seem to take into account that parents who are allergic to cats and dogs
> will probably *not* have pets -- those same parents seem more likely to have
> children who would be allergic.

Tho it's a bit circular. The tendancy to allergies but not the specific
allergy is inherited. But a child with a tendancy to allergies who
isn't exposed to pets due to parental allergies might still have
benefited from exposure which didn't happen due to parental allergies?

My husband and I are both allergic to cats
> and dogs. We don't have pets. Surprise, surprise -- when we visit my
> mother (who has 4 cats), Stephen reacts terribly (as do his parents). Not
> because we don't have pets, but because we're allergic to them!
>

But he's 3. Possibly he missed the earlier exposure that might have
lessend the chances? (all supposition on my part) Did you have pets as
a child (earlier than 1yr)?

And of course, it's not a cure or a sure fire prevention, so there will
always be children who make up the "rest" of the statistical population.

Dawn

[Hillary Israeli]

In <5kKib.89319$pl3.67992@pd7tw3no>,
Dawn Lawson > wrote:

* Also at higher risk for
*> allergies were children who were breast-fed for more than four months
*
*But this I don't get. Is it a typo? Bfding for MORE than 4 months
*increases the risk for allergies?? That seems counter intuitive.

No, it is NOT a typo. I can't at the moment lay my hands on the citation
for the study but here is a news article providing a brief synopsis:

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/
0,5744,5351040%255E23329,00.html

or
http://tinyurl.com/r075

Bottom line: no one knows why, but this study did find an INCREASED amount
of allergies in kids BFed >4 mo.

--
hillary israeli vmd http://www.hillary.net
"uber vaccae in quattuor partes divisum est."
not-so-newly minted veterinarian-at-large :)

[Kathy Cole]

On Tue, 14 Oct 2003 01:47:23 GMT, "E" > wrote:

> Did anyone see the TIME article?
>
> From Time Magazine...
>
> Allergies: The Two-Dog Trick

Here's a link to the original article (a news release from Henry
Ford Hospital, which is where my youngest was born):

http://www.henryfordhealth.org/body.cfm?id=33666&action=detail&ref=424

There are other papers in PubMed including Dr. Johnson as an author.

[Emily Roysdon]

Hillary Israeli wrote:

> http://tinyurl.com/r075
>
> Bottom line: no one knows why, but this study did find an INCREASED amount
> of allergies in kids BFed >4 mo.

The biggest problem with studies of this kind is that no one defines
"breastfeeding." It is truly *exclusive* (no formula, no sugar water,
no baby foods)? How many people would fit that definition, in this day
and age? At least one study was discussed on LactNet, the list for
lactation professionals--I'm not sure if it was that study, but I think
it might have been--and the category of "breastfed" included infants
given daily formula supplementation for at least the first week! Also,
the numbers were taken from the early 70s, in New Zealand, so who's to
say what was going on back then? I know my mother fed me solids by
three months, and that was after a lot of pressure from other people.
Until we get a study that looks at infants who are truly exclusively
breastfed, I don't know how we can be so quick to blame breastmilk. I'm
not saying that it isn't possible (and even if it was true, breastmilk
provides so much more protection and good health than allergy prevention
that I would never choose to formula feed), but I hate the media spin
and irresponsible reporting, as well as the sloppy study methodology.


JMHO,


Emily

[Emily Roysdon]

I had written:

> The biggest problem with studies of this kind is that no one defines
> "breastfeeding." It is truly *exclusive* (no formula, no sugar water,
> no baby foods)? How many people would fit that definition, in this day
> and age?

But what I meant to say was "*even* in this day and age?"


Emily

[Maryilee]

Okay, here's my theory on why the studies found that bf for more than four
months correlated to a higher incidence of allergies.

In the developed world, who is more likely to bf? Educated, more affluent
people. Who is most likely to have a home that is clean? (as in the clean
associated with higher incidences of allergies) That's right, the more
affluent people. Don't most people in third world countries bf? Don't they
also have low incidence of allergies and asthma?

Anyway, that's my theory. <g>
Maryilee

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