Baby Smell

Has your baby been kissed by a dog today?

Did you know that the "new baby smell" is thought to be nature's way of protecting the newborn?  It lasts about 18 months, and causes humans, and animals alike to be protective.  It also compels us to hold new babies, which tender contact probably has something to do with a normal development.  Joe Stalin, for instance, lacked this pheromone, smelling more like cat urine.  A resultant lack of affection turned him to a path of megalomaniac socialism.  Or, that's how I heard it.  Here' something else. “ Why puppy love can give your children a healthy start in life Children run less risk of being sensitive to allergens if there is a dog in the house in the early years of their lives, scientists have found. The conclusion, based on a six-year study of 9,000 children, adds weight to the theory that growing up with a pet trains the immune system to be less sensitive to potential triggers for allergies such as asthma, eczema and hay fever. The “hygiene theory” of allergy holds that modern life has simply become too clean, meaning that babies’ immune systems are not exposed to enough germs to develop normally. Having a dog provides enough dirt of the right kind, the new German study suggests. But it may be important that baby meets dog early enough to affect the immune system as it develops. “Our results show clearly that the presence of a dog in the home during subjects’ infancy is associated with a significantly low level of sensitisation to pollens and inhaled allergens,” said Joachim Heinrich of the National Research Centre for Environmental Health in Munich. The same protective effect was not seen in children who had frequent contact with dogs but none at home. ”