Question:
We have a 3 month old boy, who from day one had cats on and around him...
I'm wondering... are allergies inherited, or acquired.. in other words, will
being around cats his whole life make him "Immune" to cat allergies, or is
it just something that some people are, and some aren't?
Answer:
Now, I am *not* an expert on allergies, but I've read the odd item here and
there any my husband is incredably allergic to lots of things so, from that
background..... Most people [from what I've read] are not born with many allergies. As we
age and are exposed to certain allergens [ie: bee stings] we can develop
allergies. I've read stuff that strongly suggests that westerners who live
in more sterile environments than those who are in third world countries,
for example, are more likely to develop allergies *because* they are not
exposed to a lot of stuff day in and day out and do not build up a tolerance
to them. Now, I have no idea if this reportedly causal relationship has
been born out in empiracle, replicated testing, but it is certainly
intriguing.
But, to get back to your question, I doubt that your child is severely
allergic to cat hair or you would have noted real breathing problems by now.
But, when she gets scratched watch for the amount of reaction at the scratch
site. The more that the scratch area is reddened and raised the more she
has some sort of allergy to cats, albeit probably a relatively minor one.
Many people have a minor allergy to cat scratches that they are unaware of.
See your local veterinarian for more info. on that.
Allergies are a mixture of inherited and acquired characteristics. No
one develops an allergy without having inherited a disposition to that
allergy. On the other hand, no one is allergic to something on first
exposure. Exposure to the allergen, usually several times, is
necessary first. This is how i ended up developing an allergy to
birch pollen as an adult...
I'm not aware of any evidence that early exposure to an allergen makes
it less likely that a person will develop an allergy to that
substance. (In fact, in the case of food allergies, it's just the
opposite: delaying exposure generally seems to reduce the chance of
allergies.) On the other hand, if your son was predisposed to be
allergic to cats, he would likely have started to show symptoms by
now! We have two cats so I talked to my daughter's pediarician about this at her 2
week check-up. (she's 7 weeks now) He said that minimizing her exposure to
the dander is the important factor in avoiding a cat allergy. Apparently, the
more exposure to dander, the greater the liklihood of allergy. (allergies don't
run in our family)
