Dust Lowers Babies' Asthma Risk

Filed in archive Allergy: Research and Development , Asthma , Living with Allergies on May 8, 2006

Yes, I am a stay-at-home mom, but I am no domestic goddess. The laundry is an insurmountable pile and a lot are in dire need of some dusting. It's already getting better, but it was worse when my son was still a baby. In between changing nappies and whipping up something edible in the kitchen, there was simply not a lot of time left for making the flat spic-n-span.

Apparently, I did something good. A new study published at the recent issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology supports the hygiene hypothesis, which basically says that excessively clean environment in early childhood may predispose some people to develop asthma.

By age 4, a diagnosis of asthma or persistent wheezing was less common in children exposed to high levels of living room dust than those in homes with low levels, even after researchers controlled for other allergy-causing factors such as the presence of cats or dogs. There was no significant association with mattress dust, researchers reported.

I never thought that by being such an inept housekeeper, I have been inadvertently doing something good for his health. Hopefully he'll never need dirt pills later on. I'm sure he's not missing out on dirt.

If you want to know more about the hygiene hypothesis, the JACI review article, The many faces of the hygiene, is available for free.