Dogs, Cats & Your Child's Health

Want to help your children grow up healthy? Maybe the answer is to get a dog or cat.

It looks like dogs and cats might actually protect children from illness, especially during the first year of life.

A new study looked at children from birth to 12 months to see how many respiratory infections they had and how bad those infections were. Researchers found that having dogs and/or cats in the house also cut down on how bad these respiratory infections were. Of the two, having a dog in the house gave the children the lowest risk of infection. Cats came next. And those with kids without a cat or a dog had the highest risk of a respiratory infection during that first year of life.

Experts think this is because having pets in the house during these early months helps mature the immune system. And by having a more mature immune system that allows these children to better fight off respiratory problems. With dogs in particular, the more contact children had with them, the better protection they had.

So if you own a cat or a dog, or are thinking of getting one, and have small children, besides getting some life lessons in caring for animals, your children might also get some protection from the normal respiratory problems all kids get.