Fido and Spot could be helping parents raise healthier children.

A new study finds that children who lived with dogs or cats during their first year of life got sick less often than kids from pet-free zones. The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, provides fresh evidence for the counterintuitive notion that an overly clean environment may not be ideal for babies.

Sharing a home with a pet may be an early form of cross-training for the body's defense systems. Previous research has shown that owning a cat or dog was associated with less risk of gastroenteritis in young children.

Studies also suggest that the dirt — and microbes — brought indoors by pets could bolster the communities of helpful bacteria, yeast and other microscopic creatures that live in a developing child's body.

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