If you've been reading the Sprog for a while, you probably know that we're participating in the CHILD study, as I've
mentioned it before. CHILD stands for Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development Study. It's an ambitious Canada-wide project to study how chemicals, pollution & other things children encounter on a daily basis like dust & pet dander, affect their health & development. (read the detailed participant handout
here) Children like Sprout who are participating are tracked from before birth to age five. Mama (& Papa if possible) is also involved, filling in questionnaires about every six months, providing the occasional sample & bringing baby to clinic visits every year. Allergy & breathing tests are also involved, the results of which are immediately available to you. Since we joined the study, the project has actually received more funding & can now provide participating families with generous grocery gift cards as a thank you for participating in the five clinic visits.
The CHILD study aims to include 5000 children & their families in the research. At the moment, about three years in, they've got 3000. If you're less than 30 weeks pregnant, please consider joining the study, read about the eligibility requirements & follow the links for the recruiting centres
here.
Sophia is in the study, as well. And it was through the allergy test they did during the 1-year clinic visit that we found out that Sophia is allergic to cat hair. She's been living with cats since the day she came home from the hospital and we had no clue she was allergic. I'm glad we found out sooner rather than later. I've been delaying making the decision to find other homes for our cats, though. Just too hard to part with them. :(
ReplyDeleteI get a skin reaction (slight itchy rash) from cats if they lick me or rub their faces on my skin, but otherwise I'm fine with them. No respiratory issues at all. Petting them didn't seem to bother me. I lived with cats for over 15 years & just washed my hands or face when I got cat spit on me. If it were the same with Sophia, & she doesn't show any reactions to the cats, maybe you wouldn't have to give them away?
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