Parental Pacifier Sucking May Reduce Infant Allergies

Larry Hand

May 06, 2013

Parents who clean their baby's pacifier by sucking on it may be protecting their infants from developing allergies, according to an article published online May 6 inPediatrics.

Bill Hesselmar, MD, associate professor of pediatric allergology at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, and colleagues analyzed the records of 184 infants born at Mölndal Hospital in Gothenburg whose mothers were recruited into the study. Parents kept diaries covering the first year of life for the infants, and a pediatric allergist examined the children at 18 and 36 months of age. Saliva samples were collected from infants at 4 months of age, and all pacifier cleaning practices were obtained through parental interviews.

The researchers found that children (n = 65) whose parents sucked their pacifiers to clean them before giving them to the children were less likely to have asthma (odds ratio [OR], 0.12; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.01 - 0.99), eczema (OR, 0.37; 95% CI, 0.15 - 0.91), and sensitization to potential allergens (OR, 0.37; 95% CI, 0.10 - 1.27) at 18 months of age than children whose parents did not suck the pacifiers (n = 58). The protective effect against eczema remained at age 36 months (hazard ratio, 0.51; P = .04).

When the researchers adjusted for delivery mode and mother's education, they found that parents who delivered vaginally were significantly more likely to suck pacifiers than parents of cesarean-delivered infants (P = .02) and that the protective effect of pacifier sucking against eczema remained with the child during the first 18 months (OR, 0.27; 95% CI, 0.086 - 0.819; P = .02).

Children born vaginally and exposed to parental oral microbiota had the lowest prevalence of eczema, at 20%, compared with 54% for cesarean-born children not exposed to parental oral microbiota.

The evidence suggests that having their parents suck on their pacifiers and being exposed to bodily fluids during vaginal birth positively influences infants' microbiota composition, the researchers write.

The small scale of the study may be a weakness, the researchers note, but it also may be a strength because of the detailed and structured follow-up that was possible.

"By no doubt, this habit allows for a close oral contact between parents and child," the researchers write, "facilitating bacterial transfer at a very young age, before the child starts to use spoons."

Supported by the Swedish Research Council, the Vårdal Foundation, the European Commission, the Swedish Asthma and Allergy Association Research Foundation, the Torsten and Ragnar Söderberg Foundation, Gothenburg Medical Society, and the Cancer and Allergy Foundation. The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

Pediatrics. Published online May 6, 2013.