The previous post discusses how the use of antibiotics increases the risk of asthma among children. Why is that? Well, based on everything I've been reading, it seems as if the "good" bacteria in the human body support the immune system. Antibiotics kill off bad bacteria (the kind that cause infection), but they also kill of the good bacteria that has co-evolved with the human body.

Ivanhoe.com reports that exposure to germs may be just what the doctor ordered to keep your child from developing asthma. Citing a study from the University of Manitoba and McGill University in Montreal, the Ivanhoe news alert also points out that living with a dog (and its germs) can help an infant's immune system develop normally.

"We hypothesize that lesser contact with dogs during infancy results in a lower microbial load and makes infants more vulnerable to the effects of antibiotics," say the authors of the study.

Children who develop asthma are also more likely to have used a particular kind of antibiotic: BS cephalosporin. Researchers need to do more studies to better understand this phenomenon, but they say, "In the interim, it would be prudent to avoid the unnecessary use BS antibiotics in the first year of life when other antibiotics are available."