Pets in the Home = Healthy Baby

I stumbled upon this article on somebody else's blog today from The Week Magazine:

How Pets Benefit Babies

Living with a dog or a cat may bolster babies’ health. After surveying the parents of nearly 400 infants over the course of a year, Finnish researchers found that children who lived with a dog were 31 percent more likely to be in good health than those who didn't  They are also 44 percent less likely to have developed an ear infection and 20 percent less likely to have needed antibiotics. Owning a cat offered similar, though less significant, benefits. The more times pets spent outdoors, the healthier the babies that lived with them were, which suggests that dogs and other pets may track in dirt and germs from outdoors that “stimulate the immune system” of babies “to do a better job of fighting off infection,” Danelle Fisher, a pediatrician at St. John’s Health Center, tells the Los Angeles Times. Previous studies have shown that babies who are exposed to pets and dust are less likely to develop allergies and asthma.

People ask me what we are "going to do about the dogs" once the baby comes. Um - nothing. They are our babies too but obviously the human baby takes priority. I am happy to see this article about how they improve the health of babies. I especially like the part about there is less likely of a chance that the baby will develop allergies because of pets. As a sufferer of allergies ALL MY LIFE, I don't wish them upon my worse enemy, much less my own child. 

Ryan and I have talked about how we don't want to be the germ-a-phobic parents that keep their kid in a bubble. We have both read several articles about how they need to be exposed to germs so their immune systems kick in. Let's also mention that I say all of this now, but who knows how I will feel after the baby is in my arms. I might go into full Mama Bear mode and want to defend off any evil that could harm my cub. 

The blog had this picture in the post with this article. It looks just like Tackle, especially since he is starting to get gray around his mouth now. Don't think I won't try to pose my babies like this :)