Pet Allergies in Children

Overview

What Is a Pet Allergy?

With a pet allergy, the body's immune system, which normally fights infections, overreacts to proteins from some animals. If the person comes into contact with the protein, the body thinks it’s a harmful invader. The immune system responds by working very hard to fight off the invader. This causes an allergic reaction.

Being around animals can make asthma or allergy symptoms worse, which means it’s a “trigger” for some people. 

Sometimes people outgrow pet allergies over time, but they’re lifelong in many people.

Top Things to Know

• When someone has a pet allergy, the immune system reacts to proteins in an animal’s skin, saliva, or urine.
• Signs can include sneezing, runny nose, itchy eyes, coughing, and trouble breathing.
• Treatment involves reducing contact with the pet and sometimes medicine or allergy shots.
• Help prevent symptoms by keeping pets out of bedrooms and cleaning often.

Signs & Symptoms

What Are the Signs & Symptoms of Pet Allergies?

Kids with pet allergies may have these symptoms after coming in contact with an animal or its dander:

• runny or stuffy nose
• sneezing or rubbing the nose upward
• watery, itchy, or red eyes
• coughing or postnasal drip (mucus that drips down the throat)
• itchy nose, mouth, or throat
• pain or pressure in the face
• puffy, dark circles under the eyes
• itchy skin or hives

In some people, a pet allergy can also cause trouble breathing, wheezing, or pain or tightness in the chest. In those with asthma, exposure to pets can trigger an asthma flare-up.

Allergic reactions to pets can differ. Sometimes the same person can react differently at different times. Some reactions can be very mild and involve only one system of the body, like hives on the skin. Other reactions can be more severe and involve more than one part of the body.

Causes

Why Are Pets a Trigger?

Pets have a protein in their saliva (spit), urine (pee), or dander (tiny flakes of dead skin) that can set off a person's asthma or allergy symptoms.

Dander and spit of cats and dogs can cling to things like clothes, bedding, furniture, and carpets. Once spit dries, tiny particles can float into the air. For animals like rabbits, hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs, mice, and birds, dust from materials that line the bottom of cages can trigger allergies and asthma.

It’s not common for animals without fur or feathers to trigger allergies.

Diagnosis

How Are Pet Allergies Diagnosed?

If you or your doctor think your child has a pet allergy, you may need to see an allergist (AL-ur-jist). This is a doctor who diagnoses and treats asthma, allergies, and immune system conditions.

The doctor will examine your child, ask about your family’s health history, and may do skin tests for allergies or blood tests, like allergen-specific IgE (immunoglobulin E) blood tests.

Treatment & Care

How Can I Help My Child Deal With Pet Allergies?

If you think being around a pet is making your child's symptoms worse, have your child tested for allergies.

If your child has an animal allergy, you'll have to decide whether to keep your pet or find it a new home. The best course is to remove the pet from your home, though this isn't usually the easiest or happiest solution. Your child, other kids in the family, and even adults may have a tough time with this decision.

In some cases, your doctor may say it's OK to keep a pet if your child takes medicine or gets allergy shots. If so, you'll still need to limit your child's exposure to the animal.

Avoid Pet Allergens at Home

Here are some tips:

• Keep pets out of your child's bedroom and playroom.
• Encourage your child not to hug or kiss the animal.
• Vacuum and dust regularly and avoid rugs and wall-to-wall carpeting, especially in your child's bedroom.
• Have someone other than your child wash or brush your pet every week. Bathing your animal weekly may help reduce the amount of dander it spreads in the home.
• Keep your child away from a cat’s litter box and place the box away from air vents.
• Encourage everyone in the family to wash their hands after playing with your pet.
• Put caged animals in a room that your child doesn't spend time in regularly. Also, have someone other than your child clean the cage daily. Let teachers know about your child's allergies if there's a caged animal in the classroom.
• Consider buying an air cleaner with a HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) filter for your child's bedroom or playroom. Central air filtration systems are also an option, but are much more expensive.

Sometimes, such measures may not be enough. Because animal allergens are airborne, heating and ventilation systems will spread allergens throughout the house, even if the pet is kept out of bedrooms.

What if We Can't Keep Our Pet?

If your child still has symptoms after taking medicines, including allergy shots, or needs a bunch of medicines to be around your pet, your only choice might be to find a new home for your pet.

If so, be sure to discuss this with your child. Reassure kids that this isn't their "fault" — and make sure siblings don't blame the child. Losing a pet, even to a friend's home, can be hard for everyone in the family.

After a pet is removed from the home, it can take several months before dander is totally gone. You may want to consider getting an animal without fur, like a fish or reptile.

What Else Should I Know?

When going to a house where there’s a pet, your child should first take any prescribed allergy medicine and (as always) bring along other medicines that might be needed. This may include quick-relief medicine — also called rescue or fast-acting medicine or epinephrine autoinjectors.