Pets And Children

Choosing an Appropriate Pet

While all kinds of pets can bring children pleasure, it is important to choose a pet that is right for your family, your home, and your lifestyle; and one that your child can help care for. Parents should be cautious about having aggressive animals as pets. Remember, even trained and domesticated animals can be aggressive. Also, exotic and unusual animals may be difficult to care for and should be considered carefully.

Caring for a Pet

Taking care of a pet can help children develop social skills. However, certain guidelines apply:

Since very young children (under the age of 3-4 years) do not have the maturity to control their aggressive and angry impulses, they should be monitored with pets. Young children (under 10 years) are rarely able to care for a large animal, a cat or a dog, on their own.

Parents must oversee the pet's care even if they believe their child is old enough to care for a pet.
If children become lax in caring for a pet, parents may have to take over the responsibility on their own.

Children should be reminded in a gentle, not scolding way, that animals, like people, need food, water, and exercise. If a child continues to neglect a pet, a new home may have to be found for the animal. Parents serve as role models. Children learn responsible pet ownership by observing their parents' behavior.

Advantages of Pet Ownership

Children raised with pets show many benefits. Developing positive feelings about pets can contribute to a child's self-esteem and self-confidence. Positive relationships with pets can aid in the development of trusting relationships with others. A good relationship with a pet can also help in developing non-verbal communication, compassion, and empathy. Pets can serve different purposes for children:

They can be safe recipients of secrets and private thoughts--children often talk to their pets, like they do their stuffed animals.
They provide lessons about life; reproduction, birth, illnesses, accidents, death, and bereavement.
They can help develop responsible behavior in the children who care for them.
They provide a connection to nature.
They can teach respect for other living things.
Other physical and emotional needs fulfilled by pet ownership include:
Physical activity
Comfort contact
Love, loyalty, and affection
Experience with loss if a pet is lost or dies.

Pets Prepare Kids For Life Situations

Bringing a pet home and into the family can be an effective way to help prepare children for real life scenarios. For example, pets can ease the transition of suddenly having to share mom and dad's attention with a new brother or sister by demonstrating how much fun new playmates can be, as well as what is involved in caring for another. Pets can also help kids learn to deal with medical issues and illnesses as they are exposed to routine veterinarian check-ups with their pet, and the treatments for various ailments.

Caring For Your Dog

Puppies always become an important member of any family. For lots of information about being responsible dog owners I would suggest you check out this brilliant site:

Dog Care Information

It is important for any parent to teach their children the importance of caring for that special member of the family

Pets boost children's health BBC News Friday, 14 June, 2002
Children who have pet animals at home have stronger immune systems and are less likely to take days off school sick, a study suggests. Researchers at Warwick University in Coventry found that having a cat or dog exposed children to more infections early in life. However, this exposure boosted their immune systems in the medium term and meant these children attended school more often, on average, than pupils who did not have pets.

Pet ownership was significantly associated with better school attendance rates. Dr June McNicholas, Warwick University The authors said the benefits were most pronounced in children aged between five and eight years. Dr June McNicholas and colleagues tested the saliva of 138 children for the antibody immunoglobulin A (IgA), which is used as an indicator of immune system strength.

High levels of IgA suggest that the immune system is under strain while low levels show that it is vulnerable to infection.

Health benefits

The study showed that antibody levels among pet owning children were significantly more stable, indicating that they had robust immune systems. Pet owning children were found to have an extra nine days at school over the course of the year compared to those without animals.

According to the researchers, the findings appear to support the so-called "dirty hypothesis". It suggests that too much cleanliness early in life can leave the immune system weakened later on. It has been linked to soaring rates of childhood asthma in recent years.

Dr McNicholas, a health psychologist who led the study, said: "Pet ownership was significantly associated with better school attendance rates. "This was apparent across all classes, but was most pronounced in the lower school (classes one to three, aged groups five to eight). "Here, the pet owners benefited from up to 18 extra half days schooling per annum than their non-pet owning counterparts."

However, Dr McNicholas warned that pets can also pose health risks to children. One of the biggest risks is the roundworm Toxicara canis which infects dogs and can cause anything from stomach ache to eye damage.

Nevertheless, the Warwick University study found that despite these dangers three out of 10 children admitted sharing food with their pets while 21% let their pets lick their fingers.