A new study has shown that factors with pregnancy are the reason why first-born children are more likely to develop asthma or allergies.
The study was carried out with over 1,000 children in the U.K., looking into why first-born kids had the increased risk. The study was presented at the American Thoracic Society’s annual conference in Toronto.
Researchers found that the increased risk was due to an antibody in umbilical cord blood called lgE.
First-born children had higher levels of lgE compared to second-born children messing with their immune systems and putting them at the increased risk.
This increased risk was due to pre-natal programming and persisted throughout childhood.