养狗家庭的婴儿更健康_BEC初级作文

养狗家庭的婴儿更健康

Researchers found that 97% of babies-whose mothers were enrolled in the study during pregnancy-had a runny nose at some point during the study, most had a cough and about 40% had an ear infection. Nearly half of the children needed antibiotics.

研究人员发现，97%的宝宝──他们的母亲在怀孕期间就加入了这项研究──在研究期间出现过流鼻涕的症状，大部分宝宝患过咳嗽，约40%患过耳炎。将近一半的宝宝需要使用抗生素治疗。

Earlier studies using smaller samples of children have shown conflicting results on the impact of animal exposure on infections and allergies, though a study funded by the National Institutes of Health showed children exposed to two or more dogs or cats in their first year had lower chances of later developing all kinds of allergies than children exposed to one or no pets.

早前以较少儿童做样本的研究得出过相反的结论，认为接触动物对炎症和过敏有不良影响，不过一项由美国国立卫生研究院（National Institutes of Health）资助的研究显示，一岁以前接触两只或更多的狗或猫的小孩日后罹患各类过敏症的几率比只接触一只或不接触宠物的小孩要低得多。

Dr. Bergroth's study involved children who were born at Kuopio University Hospital in Finland between September 2002 and May 2005. The children's parents were given weekly questionnaires from the time their babies were nine weeks old until they were 1 year old. The questionnaires asked if the children had been 'hale and hearty' in the past seven days. If the child wasn't healthy parents were asked to document ailments like fever, cough, runny nose, ear infection, diarrhea, urinary tract infection or rash. Families were also asked each week if they had a dog or a cat at home and how much time the animals spent outside.