Allergies: sucking pacifiers protects the child

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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Children like to suckle on the pacifier - and spit it out again enthusiastically. Accordingly, the suction cups often land on the floor. Most parents then rinse them off, especially meticulous ones even sterilize them, while others simply put them in their own mouths to clean.

Although some adults acknowledge with raised eyebrows, this practice could offer advantages for the child. Researchers led by Eliane Abou-Jaoude from the University at Buffalo have found that children whose parents sucked off the pacifier may have a lower risk of allergies.

Low IgE levels, low risk of allergies

Compared to children whose pacifiers were cleaned or disinfected with water, their blood immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels were lower. IgE are proteins that repel foreign intruders.They are also called IgE antibodies. High levels of IgE indicate that the body is more susceptible to allergies. The likelihood of an allergic reaction is then particularly high - and vice versa.

Word of mouth transmission

The researchers questioned 128 mothers several times over a period of 18 months. 58 percent of the associated children used a pacifier during this time. 12 percent of the mothers reported that they sucked off the teat to clean it. 41 percent sterilized the rubber teats, 72 percent rinsed them off with soap and water.

The low IgE levels in children whose mothers sucked the pacifiers themselves occurred at the age of 10 months and then persisted for a further eight months until the end of the observation period. It is unclear whether the low allergenic tendency will continue in the child's later life. “We believe that the effect is due to the fact that microbes are transferred from the parents' mouth to the child,” says Abou-Jaoude.

Investigations by Swedish researchers had previously come to a similar conclusion. Back then, the children actually had fewer allergies, asthma or neurodermatitis.

Watch out for herpes!

Sucking your child's pacifier is therefore not taboo. However, parents should avoid it if they suffer from herpes. These viruses can actually be dangerous to children. The fact that caries bacteria could also be transmitted via the sucked pacifier or kiss on the mouth, as feared by many parents, could not be proven in the context of the Swedish study.

Stable air against allergies

The so-called hygiene hypothesis is not new. It is based on the observation that children who grow up in rural areas and who come into contact with stable air more often develop allergies less often than city children. Early contact with a wide variety of germs should train the immune system and help it correctly assess real dangers. If this is not the case, it reacts to actually harmless substances with exaggerated defense reactions.

Tags:  home remedies skin diet