![By 4028mdk09 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://www.microbe.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/1024px-Schnuller_im_Matsch_Juni_2012-1.jpg)
A story on the May 6th NPR program, Morning Edition, “Parents’ Saliva On Pacifiers Could Ward Off Baby’s Allergies” features a focus on the human microbiome, partental behavior and babies’ allergies.
“That word “microbiome” – describing the collection of bacteria that live in and on our bodies – keeps popping up. This time, researchers say that children whose parents clean their pacifiers by sucking them might be less likely to develop allergic conditions because of how their parents’ saliva changes their microbiomes.”
The NPR story is based on a small Swedish study of 184 Swedish babies. The story was based on an article published in this week’s issue of the journal Pediatrics. 65 babies whose mother or father sucked on their babies’ dropped pacifiers to clean them were reportedly far less likely to get eczema and asthma than babies whose parents did not clean dropped pacifiers by licking them.
micrbobe.net has abundant posts on the human microbiome, viewable as a search result here.
RT @arturgreensward: New post at #microBEnet Should you lick your baby’s dropped pacifier?: By 4028mdk09 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-… http://t.…
RT @phylogenomics: New post at #microBEnet Should you lick your baby’s dropped pacifier?: By 4028mdk09 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-… http://t.co…
New at #microBEnet: Should you lick your baby’s dropped pacifier?: By 4028mdk09 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http… http://t.co/iRqsD3jnQb
RT @phylogenomics: New post at #microBEnet Should you lick your baby’s dropped pacifier?: By 4028mdk09 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-… http://t.co…
Should you lick your baby’s dropped pacifier? http://t.co/kpJ56rWW71 via @microBEnet too bad my son never liked his binky.
RT @phylogenomics: New post at #microBEnet Should you lick your baby’s dropped pacifier?: By 4028mdk09 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-… http://t.co…
RT @phylogenomics: New post at #microBEnet Should you lick your baby’s dropped pacifier?: By 4028mdk09 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-… http://t.co…
The endless saga of the pacifier and the microbiome MT @phylogenomics Should you lick your baby’s dropped pacifier?http://t.co/X931HLeGtj
New at #microBEnet: Should you lick your baby’s dropped pacifier?: A story on the May 6th NPR program, Morning… http://t.co/eeMImoL0PB
Should you lick your baby’s dropped pacifier? http://t.co/vk9fphjYrq via @microBEnet
RT @NathaliaHolt: The endless saga of the pacifier and the microbiome MT @phylogenomics Should you lick your baby’s dropped pacifier?http:/…
@NathaliaHolt @phylogenomics We’ve done a lot of food-chewing for our two, so that probably has the same effect.
Magic of mom’s spit @phylogenomics: New post at #microBEnet Should you lick your baby’s dropped pacifier? http://t.co/AQtfF4ZdzM
@NathaliaHolt @phylogenomics Pacifier? I just stick my dirty finger in the kid’s mouth.
RT @NathaliaHolt: The endless saga of the pacifier and the microbiome MT @phylogenomics Should you lick your baby’s dropped pacifier?http:/…
RT @NathaliaHolt: The endless saga of the pacifier and the microbiome MT @phylogenomics Should you lick your baby’s dropped pacifier?http:/…
RT @NathaliaHolt: The endless saga of the pacifier and the microbiome MT @phylogenomics Should you lick your baby’s dropped pacifier?http:/…
@phylogenomics was hoping for an answer, but just a link well-publicized & under-powered study isn’t really helping. What’s your opinion?
@GenomicsIo [posted by Hal Levin] – I think it’s interesting and suggestive of the hygiene hypothesis, but there is another hypothesis, fairly well demonstrated, that exposures to plasticizers are associated with asthma, also from Sweden.
Are the parents just removing the most available of the plasticizers on the surface? Or has the child already sucked them off before dropping the pacifier?
What are the microbes of greatest interest for allergic diseases?
I have asked Swedish colleagues if they know anything about the materials that pacifiers are made from.