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If your Child has Eczema, can you have a Pet Dog?

It all depends on whether your child is allergic to pet dog dander/hair and you can find that out by getting your child tested, usually through a skin prick test or blood test. If your child is tested allergic, then the best way to avoid triggering an eczema flare is to not have a pet dog. There’s website offering information that certain dogs are hypoallergenic because they have less hair/dander but studies have debunked that correlation.

Bedlington Terriers

If you have a pet dog, there are a number of ways to reduce the chances of your child coming into contact with the pet dog’s dander/hair:

By Keeping the Pet Dog Dander/Hair out of the House and the Air

By keeping the dog outside of the house and off the furniture, at least off your child’s bedroom

By minimizing materials that trap animal dander such as carpets and curtains, upholstered furniture, wool bedsheets (best if you have polished floor, plastic/wooden furniture and cotton sheets)

By removing airborne animal dander by using HEPA air purifier

By vacuuming frequently using a Miele or another HEPA filtered vacuum cleaner (my colleague’s daughter’s allergy specialist recommended Miele brand and I see it being recommended on most sites)

By Reducing the Pet Dog Dander/Hair that your Dog Shed

Wash your dog at least weekly with dander reducing shampoo

Wash your hands thoroughly (remembered watching on ‘The Doctors’ that a test done on various items of a dog owning family revealed dog poo even on the owner’s wallet)

The Good News…

The good news is that a study conducted by Dr. Tolly G. Epstein suggest that children who have an allergy to dogs AND who have exposure to dogs before the age of one year old has a lower chance (14% vs 57%) of getting eczema by age four years old, compared to children with a dog allergy and did not have a pet dog. (note to cat lovers: It’s the reverse, i.e. more likely to develop eczema after having a cat if already have a cat allergy 54% vs 33%)

And the other good news is that children who don’t have a dog allergy won’t develop one after having a pet dog (is that true? didn’t see this published much, anyone has experience?)

2 replies on “If your Child has Eczema, can you have a Pet Dog?”

Read the latest research:
Based on hair and coat samples, the researchers found higher levels of the Can f 1 allergen, one of the proteins that cause dog allergies, in the hypoallergenic group, with Poodles and Labradoodles leading the pack in allergen levels.

So, there may not be hypoallergenic dog breeds after all!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48017583/ns/health-allergies_and_asthma/t/hypoallergenic-dog-theres-no-such-thing-report-suggests/#.T_p-r-FOWHA.twitter

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