Fido Might Protect Your Baby Against Eczema

THURSDAY, June 5, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Having a family dog might decrease a baby’s risk of developing eczema later in childhood, a new evidence review says.

Specifically, exposure to canines appears to influence a child’s genetic risk of eczema, by blunting skin inflammation, researchers reported June 4 in the journal Allergy.

“We know that genetic make-up affects a child’s risk of developing eczema and previous studies have shown that owning a pet dog may be protective, but this is the first study to show how this may occur at a molecular level,” senior researcher Dr. Sara Brown said in a news release. She is a professor of dermatology at the University of Edinburgh in the U.K.