Allergies: The Two-Dog Trick

Here's a reason to think twice about giving antibiotics to kids: researchers at 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.