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Neither my brother nor myself had any problems with allergies and we both had good immune systems. And we were exposed to animals from babyhood.
I do remember though, that my mother had a "cat net" which she used to fix over the hood of the pram to stop a cat lying on my brother when he was a baby in a pram. It's strange because I was remembering that the other day.
But that was just for a sleeping baby. When we were awake, and up, we were in constant contact with animals. We remained in close contact with animals all of our childhood.
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We have all been exposed to animals and we have pretty good health.
I think the cat net might have been because people thought a cat could lie on a baby's face and suffocate the child.
I have even had older people tell me that a cat would suck a baby's breath out and kill the child. I suspect the fear goes back to the time when crib death (SIDS)was unexplained. When a baby died suddenly for no apparent reason people looked around for something to blame. I am sure many cats were blamed for things they did not do.
The children might have done better if they had the presence of a warm cat nearby. I don't know if there has ever been a study of the presence of pets and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
We do better and are healthier if we are exposed to more things. I understand it even works for some food allergies.
Catherine
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Yes that was the reason for the cat net. It was a safety thing to prevent any accidents caused by the cat sitting on the baby's face. But cats certainly weren't banished. I remember the cat did sit on the pram. We had three cats around the house. And nobody was bothered about anything cats did when babies or children were awake. It was just for sleeping babies.
I guess a cat lying on a baby's face could happen....
Cats will lie in any warm place and wouldn't mean any harm.
But yes, I suppose in the cases of cot death in the old days, it's likely an animal could have been blamed even when it had nothing to do with it. We still don't understand cot death, so could have had wrongful ideas many years ago.