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American Morning

House Call: Exposure to Antibiotics in Infancy May Lead to Childhood Allergies

Aired September 30, 2003 - 09:45   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Exposure to antibiotics in infancy may lead to childhood allergies. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now once again from the CNN Center with details of this study.
Sanjay, seems like I've heard a little bit about this before.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Good morning, Heidi. And in fact antibiotics being given too young is something that people have talked about for a long time and one of the potential problems of that.

There's a new study now that actually points specifically at one problem that people hadn't really thought of before, which is allergies. In fact, they looked specifically at children, about 448 children, and figured out if they'd taken allergies (sic) within the first six months of life, how much more likely were they to have problems with allergies.

Sort of interesting findings here. Take a look at some of the list of what they found here. Again, about 448 children. This study presented in Vienna today out of Henry Ford Hospital. They found by age 7, if they had taken antibiotics within the first six months of life, it increased the risk of developing allergies by 1.5 times.

Sort of -- a couple of interesting things that also came out of the study. If there fewer than two pets in the household -- and this is something that you and I have talked about, Heidi, as well -- the likelihood of developing allergies actually increased to 1.7 times.

Neither one of those is high thought as if a mother has allergies. That confers a risk of about 2 times greater to the child as well.

Now, pets as well. That's one thing people always ask about. Pets do seem to confer some sense of protection against allergies for reasons that aren't entirely clear. But it does seem that if a child has at least two pets in the house, that their chance of developing allergies a little bit lower -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Well, young Riley (ph) is not faring well then according to this study. He had antibiotics at least once early. He's got more than two pets and I had allergies. So we have all of that.

GUPTA: He has more than two pets?

COLLINS: Well we've got two. We're right at the cusp there. So that means he's going to be at risk.

GUPTA: Yes. And again, some of this is not entirely new. The question really is -- a lot of people are probably wondering is why. How do antibiotics in the first six months of life lead to allergies later in life?

Well it's sort of interesting. For a long time, there's been this the hygiene hypothesis. The name's not that important. Basically what it means is at birth, everybody has a certain amount of immune function. And that immune function's geared towards fighting off allergies.

Now you get natural exposure to bacteria and that conditions you against allergies later in life. That's the hypothesis. If you take antibiotics, you tend to sterilize some of that bacteria so you don't have enough of an exposure. If oin the other hand you have pets, you get a larger exposure which may give you some protection against allergies later in life.

Riley, you know, who knows? The numbers are still going to be small in terms of how many kids actually develop allergies. But his chances might be a little higher than the average non-Riley out there.

COLLINS: Non-Riley. And there are a lot of them as well. All right, Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much for clearing that up for us.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




to Childhood Allergies>


Aired September 30, 2003 - 09:45   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Exposure to antibiotics in infancy may lead to childhood allergies. Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now once again from the CNN Center with details of this study.
Sanjay, seems like I've heard a little bit about this before.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Good morning, Heidi. And in fact antibiotics being given too young is something that people have talked about for a long time and one of the potential problems of that.

There's a new study now that actually points specifically at one problem that people hadn't really thought of before, which is allergies. In fact, they looked specifically at children, about 448 children, and figured out if they'd taken allergies (sic) within the first six months of life, how much more likely were they to have problems with allergies.

Sort of interesting findings here. Take a look at some of the list of what they found here. Again, about 448 children. This study presented in Vienna today out of Henry Ford Hospital. They found by age 7, if they had taken antibiotics within the first six months of life, it increased the risk of developing allergies by 1.5 times.

Sort of -- a couple of interesting things that also came out of the study. If there fewer than two pets in the household -- and this is something that you and I have talked about, Heidi, as well -- the likelihood of developing allergies actually increased to 1.7 times.

Neither one of those is high thought as if a mother has allergies. That confers a risk of about 2 times greater to the child as well.

Now, pets as well. That's one thing people always ask about. Pets do seem to confer some sense of protection against allergies for reasons that aren't entirely clear. But it does seem that if a child has at least two pets in the house, that their chance of developing allergies a little bit lower -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Well, young Riley (ph) is not faring well then according to this study. He had antibiotics at least once early. He's got more than two pets and I had allergies. So we have all of that.

GUPTA: He has more than two pets?

COLLINS: Well we've got two. We're right at the cusp there. So that means he's going to be at risk.

GUPTA: Yes. And again, some of this is not entirely new. The question really is -- a lot of people are probably wondering is why. How do antibiotics in the first six months of life lead to allergies later in life?

Well it's sort of interesting. For a long time, there's been this the hygiene hypothesis. The name's not that important. Basically what it means is at birth, everybody has a certain amount of immune function. And that immune function's geared towards fighting off allergies.

Now you get natural exposure to bacteria and that conditions you against allergies later in life. That's the hypothesis. If you take antibiotics, you tend to sterilize some of that bacteria so you don't have enough of an exposure. If oin the other hand you have pets, you get a larger exposure which may give you some protection against allergies later in life.

Riley, you know, who knows? The numbers are still going to be small in terms of how many kids actually develop allergies. But his chances might be a little higher than the average non-Riley out there.

COLLINS: Non-Riley. And there are a lot of them as well. All right, Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much for clearing that up for us.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com




to Childhood Allergies>