By IANS
Montreal : A Canadian study suggests that antibiotic use by infants during their first year of life may make them prone to asthma later in life.
The study published in the June issue of the journal Chest monitored the antibiotic use of 13,116 children from birth to seven years of age.
Researchers from the University of Manitoba and McGill University in Montreal found that the risk of asthma was 1.5 times higher in children who received five or more courses of antibiotics in the first year of their life than those who did not get the drugs.
"The link between antibiotics and asthma was seen in children who are considered at low risk as they were born to mothers without asthma," said researcher Anita Kozyrskyj.
However, the study showed that having a dog in the household while the child is a baby has a positive effect and may prevent asthma, reported online edition of health magazine WebMD.