Parental Sucking of Pacifier Highly Effective in Preventing Children's Allergies: Study

Exposure to parental saliva at infancy may protect children against allergies, researchers say. Providing ample proof of their theory, a team of researchers found that prevalence of asthma and eczema was comparatively low among parents who cleaned their children's pacifier with their mouths than others who sought other methods to clean the pacifier.

Eczema or dermatitis is a chronic disease that involves scaly and itchy rashes. Approximately 10 to 20 percent of all infants in the country are affected by the skin disorder. Atopic dermatitis is one of the most common types of eczema found among babies and children. According to the New York Presbyterian Hospital, more than 15 million American adults and children have atopic dermatitis.

To prove their theory, Bill Hesselmar, from the Queen Silvia Children's Hospital in Gothenburg, Sweden, and colleagues looked at 184 infants. Majority of the babies were at higher risks of developing allergies, Reuters Health reported.

At six months, researchers collected information about the methods parents opted for to clean their infants' pacifiers. Some reported cleaning the pacifier with tap water, while some cleaned it by simply sucking it. At different stages - 18 and 36 months - the children underwent allergy tests.

Children of parents who used their own saliva to clean the pacifiers were found to be at 88 percent lower risks of developing asthma and at 66 percent lower risks of developing eczema.

Researchers also noted a difference in the types of bacteria between children whose parents adopted the mouth-sucking technique for cleaning, and parents who depended on other cleaning techniques.

The mouth microbes handed over by the parent through the cleaning process help in improving the child's immunity and thus lower his/her risk of asthma and eczema, researchers from Sweden said, while explaining the occurrence.

"Parental sucking of their infant's pacifier may reduce the risk of allergy development, possibly via immune stimulation by microbes transferred to the infant via the parent's saliva," the authors wrote.

The findings, published May 6 in the online issue of Pediatrics, come at a time when one in 20 American children is affected with asthma.