One theory that has fascinated me recently is the “hygiene hypothesis”. This theory proposes that we keep our homes and environment too clean; in fact, this hypothesis says that infant exposure to bacteria can actually help to protect your child from developing allergies later.

This idea led me to wonder – what if it isn’t just that we’re too clean on the outside, but actually too clean on the inside?

Researchers haven’t missed this area of study either. After all, we aren’t just obsessive about bacteria in our homes! Antibiotics have become the standard of care for a whole host of conditions. You get strep throat, or an ear infection, or have a cold that keeps hanging on and the doctor takes out the prescription pad.

Since antibiotics tend to kill many if not all bacteria in the body (and not just the problem ones), people in developed countries tend to be deficient in probiotics. Probiotics are the healthy bacteria that we need. These bacteria perform a whole host of functions for us from digesting some forms of fiber in our diet to supporting healthy immune systems.

Given the rise in allergies over the same time period that antibiotics have really come of age, many new studies are looking at the bacteria in our bodies to see if there is any relationship with allergies. Some are finding critical evidence to say yes – the right bacteria make a difference.

So how do we make sure that our kids are getting a healthy inoculation of the right bacteria from the word go? One way is through nursing. The baby breastfeeds from the mother and mom’s friendly bacteria are shared with her child. Not only does the child get breastmilk (which has a whole host of benefits for baby), but also the right help to set up a healthy immune system.

All this brings me to a comparison of my own two children. My daughter nursed for 2.5 years; she’s never taken antibiotics of any kind. My son nursed for only 10 months and took antibiotics several times before the age of 3. Rayna has no allergies; Michael has allergies to food as well as a wide variety of inhaled substances, from pollen to animal dander.

Keeping our son healthy has been a real challenge.

With this in mind, I’m conducting an experiment. Both my children have recently started on a good quality probiotic supplement. With any luck, it will help to reduce the number of colds my kids get this winter! After all, good bacteria make the immune system stronger.

But my real hope is that it also reduces my son’s allergies when the pollen season rolls around again in the spring.

I’ll report on my son’s allergies as we go on with this experiment. I’m expecting that we’ll need to continue probiotics for several months before I know for sure if it is helping. After all, his allergies didn’t develop overnight and they may not disappear overnight either.

Frankly, even if probiotics don’t cure my son’s allergies, there’s every indication that I’m helping both my kids to be healthy and I’m certainly doing no harm. If I remember correctly, that’s the first rule of medicine.