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Home > Portable Practical Pediatrics > 6 Reasons Babies Benefit Living w/ Pets (Pedcast)
Podcast: Portable Practical Pediatrics
Episode:

6 Reasons Babies Benefit Living w/ Pets (Pedcast)
Category: Kids & family
Duration: 00:00:00
Publish Date: 2017-12-10 16:06:47
Description: Topic Introduction   Recently my son called me to ask me if I recommended that children grow up and live with pets, specifically dogs? Interesting question Benjamin. Actually, there is a lot of new interest from by both psychologists and immunologist around this question. Since I'm always looking for subjects that parents will find both practical and informative I thought this would be a good topic for a post.   So today, we are going to take on the following questions; are there emotional benefits from children growing up around dogs and does the presence of a dog in the home improve the health of babies and children?  Stay tuned for this thought provoking and informative pedcast I have called, 6 Reasons Babies Benefit Living w/ Pets.   Musical Introduction Emotional benefits children get from pet ownership Let's start with the emotional benefits of living with and being responsible for the well being of a dog. Recently I saw an article in INC. magazine that claims there are scientific, proven advantages for children when they live and grow up with pets, specifically, dogs. Glenn Leibowitz, the author of the article, enumerated four strong emotional reasons for parents to consider dog ownership when their children are growing up. Dogs make children happy-This reason is pretty easy to see when most children are near dogs. They light up. Yes, there may be a little fear but also a strong urge to touch, pet, and play with. Dogs help children learn to care for others- Children from a very young age understand that dogs require care and living with them gives the child a chance to flip the roles from being the one who is cared for to the one who is actually providing the care. Invaluable!. Dogs make children gentle-Every child who plays with dogs eventually crosses the line between play and actually hurting the dog. Recognizing that they need to be gentle and that the dog can be hurt with rough play is an important lesson for any child to learn. Dogs foster independence-This just makes sense. Dog ownership demands that everyone in the family accepts some responsibility for the care of the dog. Mastering these tasks allows children to learn to become self-starters, learn new skills, and develop future thinking and judgment skills; all prerequisites to independence.     Science Drive: Physical Benefits of having pets in your home Fair enough.  I think most of us would agree that children get emotional benefits from pets but Doc Smo is going to take Mr. Leibowitz's arguments one-step further. Now we are going to shift gears and discuss the emerging medical research that has found strong physical reasons for parents to consider having a furry creatures living under their roof, especially when their children are babies. To do that, we need a quick tour down "Science Lane" to get some basic science concepts nailed down for you. Let's learn about your baby's immune system's development. We live in a very germy world so it is vital that babies be born with some ability to recognize and defend themselves from germs that they will encounter. At birth, although fairly weak, they are able to turn on what is called their innate immune system when presented with an infection or threat from the outside world. The innate immune response consists of fever and increased numbers of killer white cells. After a few months of age however, babies begin to use a much more targeted and powerful part of their immune system called the adaptive immune system, that can, as the name implies, adapt and target invading germs. So you can see that a baby’s immune system, both innate and adaptive is developing when they are very young. More and more pediatricians are realizing that having a healthy immune system development is critical for the child's long-term good health. Those early experiences with a variety of germs is literally teaching your baby's immune system what is friend and what is foe!
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