Parents who suck their baby's soother to clean it may reduce the child's risk of developing certain allergies, a new study indicates.

According to Swedish researchers, allergies are common in industrialised countries. However, some have suggested that babies who are exposed to harmless bacteria may be somehow protected. The issue has been which bacteria the baby should be exposed to, when they should be exposed and how.

The researchers decided to look at soothers. They followed almost 200 children from birth, noting which babies used soothers in the first six months of life and how the soothers were cleaned, for example, if they fell on the floor.

Some parents boiled the soothers, some ran them under a tap, while others sucked it themselves and then gave it back to the baby.

The study found that children whose parents sucked their soothers to clean them were three times less likely to suffer from the skin condition, eczema, by the age of 18 months, compared to children whose parents used other cleaning methods.

The results stood even when other factors were taken into account, such as allergies in the parents.

The team noted that simple use of the soother did not affect allergy risk, nor did cleaning the soother by boiling it.

According to the researchers from the University of Gothenburg, saliva is a major source of bacteria and viruses and they believe that these may be transferred from parent to child via the soother.

"Early establishment of a complex oral microflora might promote healthy maturation of the immune system, thereby counteracting allergy development," they suggested.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, Pediatrics.

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