Allergies can develop at any point in life. The main causes for allergies are exposure to chemicals, heredity, and hygiene hypothesis. Heredity is a common cause because if one parent is affected by allergies, each child has a 30% chance of developing an allergy. Then if both parents have any type of allergy, the child has 70% of developing an allergy. Also if neither of the parents has allergies the chances of the child developing allergies is still 15%. I hope I didn’t confuse you with all these numbers, regardless of the percentage, your child can still develop allergies at any point in life thanks to the other two factors: chemicals and hygiene hypothesis.

Chemicals are hard to avoid. They are in our food, air, house, water and even clothing. Both long-term and short-term exposure to chemicals can cause allergies. To protect your little ones you have to avoid exposure to chemicals yourself and inspect your house as well as your eating and cooking habits. Children can be exposed to chemicals as early as when they are still in the womb. Whatever the mother consumes the child will consume as well. If you’re not careful with your diet and environment, the child can develop allergies at an early stage. Later you can be stuck facing the most difficult task – treating a newborn from allergies. At that age their lungs are not fully developed and many treatments cannot be administered.

I might be repeating myself for the one-hundredth time, but if you truly want to protect yourself and you children stick to the elimination diet and make sure you shop at an organic market. Also do not use any air fresheners in the house or harmful chemicals to clean the house and wash laundry. Try hypo-allergenic brands and those that are environmentally friendly. When you cook make sure the fumes do not accumulate in the house, also keep in mind that non-stick pots emit dangerous fumes as well. “As early as the mid-’70s, veterinarians warned that fumes emitted from the pans when heated above 350 degrees Celsius — by leaving an empty pan on a burner, for instance — are toxic to pet birds, potentially causing breathing difficulties and death. And because PFOA doesn’t break down under normal conditions, it tends to accumulate in places like our bodies. Research released in 2002 by the 3M Company found the chemical in 96 percent of children tested.” That is a high percentage! I’m more than sure that I have been exposed to these “non-stick fumes” and at some point exposed my son to it. If it can kill a pet, it can surely kill a child. Now at this point you might be wondering–how do chemicals cause allergies? It’s obvious that they harm the body and can cause multiple illnesses. The only way to find out is to get tested for allergies. A blood test will reveal IgE levels in the body. If exposure to a particular type of chemical increases the IgE levels, then the chemical is classified as an “allergen chemical”. Do not confuse allergic reactions with a delayed immune reaction. A delayed immune reaction to toxins does not involve IgE. One chemical and known carcinogen that is hard to ignore and has been linked to childhood allergies and asthma is formaldehyde. Can you believe that this chemical is utilized in furniture including baby cribs? Some states (California) have already established standards and discontinued the use of formaldehyde in baby furniture. Others are still in progress or have not even considered any standards. There is a long list of harmful chemical allergens, but if you live a healthy life style and boost your child’s immunity you can build some tolerance against the most common ones.

Hygiene Hypothesis was proposed by David Strachan in 1989. This hypothesis clarifies that the reason for the allergy epidemic and asthma is due to the decline of exposure to germs, smaller family sizes, less exposure to animals, and higher standards of cleanliness. Back then families were bigger and we weren’t as concerned as we are today with the spread of flu and diseases. We washed our hands less frequently, had bigger families, and lived in the suburbs where we had more interaction with pollen and animals. Daily exposure to the allergens allowed the immune system to accept them.  And this is the exact method that I utilized to treat my son – schedule exposure to the allergens. “Stimulation of the immune system by microbes protects from the development of inflammatory diseases; therefore a reduced exposure to infectious agents may explain the rise in allergic and autoimmune diseases in industrialized countries” (Yazdanbakhsh 15).

Tags: allergens, allergies, allergy, causes of allergies, chemical exposure, development of allergies, how allergies develop, hygiene hypothesis

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