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To the Editor: It is not clear how Dr Ownby and colleagues¹ operationalized exposure to pets during a child's first year of life. This is critical because the time window in infancy when allergic sensitization takes place may be quite narrow.² Pets already present at birth may have had different effects than those that entered (or left) the household later in the first year of life. If parents with a wheezing infant decided to get rid of their pet after a few months, how did the authors define this exposure?

The dust mite concentration (measured at age 2 years) seemed to decrease with the number of dogs or cats during the first year of life (Table 2). The authors do not address this finding, but it may help to explain the inverse relationship between pet exposure and allergic sensitization. Perhaps people who own dogs and cats clean their houses more . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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