Babies, Cats & Air Cleaners

Graham

Graham

Registered User
Our 6.5 week old baby Jeffrey has had some breathing problems (noisy breathing, blocked nose, mucus in nose) over the last week or so which on 2 or 3 nights has affected both his sleep and feeding.

My wife thinks the problem might be caused by our two cats and the doctor we took Jeffrey to see suggested that this might be a possibility. Although he did say that breathing and nose problems are quite common with Western or mixed babies (I thought this was a bit strange). However, Jeffrey was fine with the cats during his first 5 weeks at home and our maid keeps the house very clean. We don't have carpets that could trap cat dander (the dead skin particles). Plus I think it's too much of a coincidence that Jeffrey developed a problem at the same time as both my wife and I have colds.

My wife wants to get rid of our cats, but I really don't want to do this, except as a last resort as they have been with us for more than 10 years and are part of the family. Also, the cats are quite clean and have regular showers and are house cats so never go outside to get dirty. Also, I want Jeffrey to grow up with animals (assuming he has no allergies) as I've read that children who have pets have stronger immune systems.

I've suggested buying an air cleaner (purifier) for our house, especially for use in our bedroom where Jeffrey sleeps at night, but my wife is worried that an air cleaner would make the air too clean and thus weaken his immune system for when he goes outside.

I'd like to hear any thoughts or experiences on cats with babies and air cleaners?

Graham
 
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It might be a allergy

Hi Graham,

It sounds like that your baby has an allergy to the cats. Why don't you bring your baby to see Dr. Lynn Lim, Naturopath Physician. She treats allergies with a technique called NAET (Nambudripuds Allergies Elimination Technique) which is a non-invasive, drug free, natural solution.

After the allergy has been treated you can even keep the cats with you and don't have to worry about the allergies.

I have my both kids treated by Dr. Lim and trust me the results are unbelievable.

Try it out. If you want to know more about this technique, visit www.naet.com
 
Hi Graham

Long-term it will work out better for your son if he does grow up in a pet household. There has been extensive research into the impact of pet ownership from an early age on the likelihood of developing asthma/allergies.

I'm sure a google search will bring up some of these papers. What I remember is that in households where the children grew up with at least one (or better two) dogs (and I think cats are the same), the child was less likely to develop allergies, then a child who grew up with no pets.

Kids need a bit of dirt around to develop immunity, and as we have gone crazy with bleaching ourselves to death, they don't necessarily pick up the immunity they need.

We are a cat household. My elder daughter was snuffly as a baby but grew out of it over a few months (she's now almost 7 and doesn't have any allergies). The 15 mth old was never snuffly.

As you said, your cats are part of the family. And your son will get so much fun out of them as he grows older.

Good luck
 
Hi Graham,

I understand where you're at - we have two cats and dog and a baby that had a sniffy sneezy nose for about her first 4 months, plus one raging cold in there as well.

Like you, we have no rugs and keep out house and floors extremely clean. Some babies just produce more mucus in the first few months. That's what doctor at the Matilda told me and that the sniffy nose was definitely not allergies - as I was worried about it, and a saline spray called unimer pediatric really really helped and sometimes we had to use safety cotton buds to help get the sticky mucus out (I could't bring myself to use the nasal aspirator!).

When she had a cold it was definitely different, way more sneezy, red eyes and she couldn't sleep, eat etc. Our normally jolly baby, albeit a bit sniffy, was then truly miserable. I doubted myself in the beginning but then recognised it was a bad cold and not the same as what we'd been dealing with. For this the doctor gave us nose drops called Otrivin - for infants.

Our little girl is now 6 months old and definitely not as sniffy so I'm quite glad we didn't get rid of our beloved pets and learned to deal with those sniffles in ealier months. Of course, every child is different but if I were you I would seek a second opinion.

Best of luck to you,
Kim
 
my baby had the same thing

Hi Graham,

My baby had the same symptoms when he turned a month old. I went to several doctors and each one telling me a different story. One thought it was allergy, another thought it is because he has been lying down all teh time therefore teh mucous wont drip or something like that... Because of these different diagnosis, I never gave my baby any of the medicine that was prescribed.

I then bought a Sharp air purifier with plasmacluster and cleaned the entire house. Nothing worked.
I was so worried coz his breathing is sometimes really noisy.
I dont know what it was but it just went away when he was almost 4 months old.
Something about allergies: most babies at 6.5 months will not show any allergy sympton because they would have not reached the threshold level yet.
So don't worry too much.

Valerie
 
Hi Graham,

We have 3 cats and 2 dogs in the house, and I have been worried about the same thing since my son was born. He is now 2.5 years old and we have had no problems on animal allergies so far, which says a lot as both my husband and I have allergies, making Sean particularly prone (more than 50%).

The thing about allergies is that there are a multitude of sources and animal dander is just but one. I have skin allergy and my husband has nasal problems, but Sean has in turn developed a FOOD allergy (soy) - NOT to dander as most of our friends had annoyingly predicted.

As my paediatrician says, DON'T JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS TOO SOON. Of course pets are a possibilty - they are one out of over 100 possible sources. Believe me, we have investigated this when my son started having problems.

Sean has had colds and blocked noses as a small baby, but these have cleared up after 2 or 3 weeks. I agree with the others. With both Dad and Mom down with colds, it's not surprising the household is full of viruses (even for a sparkling clean home). Normally, the problems should clear out in a few weeks. Also my husband pointed out that the mucus in nasal allergies is usually clear. Dark coloured secretions means infection instead. Take it from someone who's had morning sniffles for more than 35 years. Also confirmed by our doctors.

Please just wait a while and keep your eyes open. If Jeffrey continues with the nose but the problems DO NOT get progressively worse in the next few weeks, then it is likely he can be desensitized over the natural course of time. As my paed pointed out, it is all part of the babies' natural process to acclimatise with external environment vs the germ free womb. AND as armstroe said, there was a research publicized around 2 years ago, which found that children living with animals in the first year of life have much lower possibility of developing animal allergies later as they are already desentized.

After all this, I'm just glad I haven't given in to all that pressure from my friends / relatives / passers-by to get rid of our animals, simply because they THINK or HEARD definatively that "animals will give babies allergies". Truly, it would be so unfair to the animal who has loved and been loved in a family for years, just to be abandoned because of an unproven assumption for that particular child.

Some chronic cases do exist, but they are few and much much less than allergies to cow's milk, soy, egg, gluten(wheat), peanuts, dust mites, etc.

Sorry for the length, and good luck.
 
Hello Sean,
I hope you don't mind my asking who your pediatrician is. He/she sounds very sensible & I'm looking around for a pediatrician that I can trust.
 
Hi jwang,

Our paediatrician is Terry Lau. His office is in McDonald's Building in Causeway Bay. He is quite well known to the doctors in Queen Mary Hospital as I found out when Sean was hospitalised last year.

Let me know if you need further info.

Jeannie
 
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