Will Letting My Cat Into My Bedroom Cause Me To Become Allergic To Him?

[wombat]

I read this article that says you're at risk of becoming sensitized to your cat if you first got cats as an adult and have other allergies (I got my boy as an adult and am allergic to dust)
https://www.medpagetoday.com/allergyimmunology/allergy/30407
It also says that those who don't let their cat into their room are less likely to become allergic to cats. I have been trying to follow this advice but I've recently been letting my cat into my room once every 2-3 weeks or a month because he's started calling outside my room at night and my heart crumbled. I change the sheets and vaccuum the bed and pillows etc the day after I let him into the room. Do you think I'm still putting myself at risk?

 

[Neo_23]

I slept with a cat on my face for years and I’m fine.

 

[abyeb]

Everyone I know who has cat allergies has been allergic since childhood. I don’t know anyone who has become allergic to cats as an adult.

 

[Neo_23]

 

[Lilacat >(^.^)<]

I have many allergies, developing after my second pregnancy (age 24), including to cats, but they have always slept in our bedroom. I was not about to stop that practice.

I was told to get rid of my cats, & I told the dr right back that that was NOT gonna happen so I had 5 years of desensitizing shots & have had no trouble since. They still sleep with us!

 

[Kieka]

I am allergic and I have a cat with me almost every night. Probably not the best idea in the world and I don't encourage others to do the same but you only live once and I sleep so much better with them.

 

[neely]

Everyone I know who has cat allergies has been allergic since childhood. I don’t know anyone who has become allergic to cats as an adult.

LOL, I guess I'm the exception. I became allergic to cats and dogs as an adult and guess what? I've shared my home with both pets. I try to be diligent about cleaning but alas I'm allergic to outdoor irritants too. Since the animals have the run of the house I personally don't feel keeping them out of the bedroom makes that much of a difference. One suggestion my allergist gave me was to put a cover sheet on top of the blanket/comforter and wash it regularly.

 

[sivyaleah]

Everyone I know who has cat allergies has been allergic since childhood. I don’t know anyone who has become allergic to cats as an adult.

Me.

I never had problems until I reached somewhere in my late 30's/early 40's or so. I vividly remember the first time I realized I was allergic - one of my sisters had a cat and I stayed over for a weekend. I literally couldn't breath, and experienced allergic asthma for the first time.

I also developed allergies to other things, seasonal plants, etc. about that time and it continued to worsen through the next 10 years. Finally went to an allergist a couple of years back to find I'm now allergic to a large amount of indoor and outdoor things. Cats, included.

However, having said that, my allergies are able to be controlled fairly well using a combination of allergy medication daily, nasal spray to clear my sinuses, medicated eye drops if needed (rarely) and, got a couple of air purifiers for our home. So far, much better!

 

[Max's Human]

I sleep with 2 cats and a dog and despite being allergic as a kid I have no problems other than them hogging my bed!

 

[Yanaka]

My roommate doesn't sleep with the cats in his room but they're allowed in during the day when he's there, and his allergies actually almost disappeared

 

[Max's Human]

One of the latest THEORIES is exposing children to honey from the area they live in, it seems to help prevent the onset of allergies. Also they believe exposing children to peanuts works in much the same way!
I was dealing with asthmatic bronchitis and the doctor advsed my parents we should move to ARIZONA and sadly we would never have furrred or feathered pets. I have always had pets and would have more if I could. The doctor was happy that things turned out the way they did but in the 60's that was how they dealt with allergies.

 

[segelkatt]

Regarding allergies after becoming an adult: we never had any pets until a parakeet flew in through the balcony door ans became my mother's pet. In her early married life she had a dog but that was before my time. I got a cat when I was 20 or so and never had an allergy, dogs leave me cold so I never had one. The only allergy I have that I know of is against shellfish but not regular fish. I discovered that when I was 18 and had never eaten shrimp until then although when I was little, around 6, we would catch crayfish, boil them like lobster and I don't remember ever getting sick from that. I got violently sick about an hour after eating a shrimp cocktail, and the next time I had one of those I got sick again and decided I would not eat that again. A few years ago I was at a fine restaurant and requested not to put clam sauce on my salmon steak. There was a sauce on the salmon although I saw no clams so assumed that it was some other kind of sauce. Before the dinner was over I could hear my guts making noise and I felt a little woozy but thought maybe I was catching a cold. On my way home I kept feeling a little strange but nothing major. However, once home and getting out of my car I suddenly upchucked all over myself (nothing in my car, that would have been a real mess) and I smelled fishy. Damn, they DID put the clam sauce on my salmon, they just picked out the clams! And I had told them I was allergic to them! I raised a fuss the next day, asked for the manager to call me back, of course nobody ever did. You can be assured that I would never eat there again and I told the people with whom I had dinner about it too.
So apparently you can get allergies later in life. My mother was probably 50 when she started to break out in a rash if she touched potatoes that had sprouted even just a little and she could not let strawberries touch her skin because she would get a rash. However, she could eat them with a spoon, very strange.
My son's children allegedly are allergic to cats and so is his wife. However, the younger one came to visit and was with me for 3 weeks and there was no allergic reaction and I had 4 cats, two with long hair. When I move in August I will be staying with my son for a few months and his wife has already consulted with her physician regarding allergy shots since I will be bringing my cats (one of the longhairs has passed), the son who still lives at home is already whining about the cats. However, I do wonder about their allergies since they had all come to visit quite a few years ago, had dinner and sat on the couch, the then kids on the floor and nobody was complaining about allergies to cats then. We'll see how that's going to turn out come August. I will have an open mind that allergies can pop up later but at this point I am rather skeptical about these two particular people.

 

[Kieka]

Regarding allergies after becoming an adult: we never had any pets until a parakeet flew in through the balcony door ans became my mother's pet. In her early married life she had a dog but that was before my time. I got a cat when I was 20 or so and never had an allergy, dogs leave me cold so I never had one. The only allergy I have that I know of is against shellfish but not regular fish. I discovered that when I was 18 and had never eaten shrimp until then although when I was little, around 6, we would catch crayfish, boil them like lobster and I don't remember ever getting sick from that. I got violently sick about an hour after eating a shrimp cocktail, and the next time I had one of those I got sick again and decided I would not eat that again. A few years ago I was at a fine restaurant and requested not to put clam sauce on my salmon steak. There was a sauce on the salmon although I saw no clams so assumed that it was some other kind of sauce. Before the dinner was over I could hear my guts making noise and I felt a little woozy but thought maybe I was catching a cold. On my way home I kept feeling a little strange but nothing major. However, once home and getting out of my car I suddenly upchucked all over myself (nothing in my car, that would have been a real mess) and I smelled fishy. Damn, they DID put the clam sauce on my salmon, they just picked out the clams! And I had told them I was allergic to them! I raised a fuss the next day, asked for the manager to call me back, of course nobody ever did. You can be assured that I would never eat there again and I told the people with whom I had dinner about it too.
So apparently you can get allergies later in life. My mother was probably 50 when she started to break out in a rash if she touched potatoes that had sprouted even just a little and she could not let strawberries touch her skin because she would get a rash. However, she could eat them with a spoon, very strange.
My son's children allegedly are allergic to cats and so is his wife. However, the younger one came to visit and was with me for 3 weeks and there was no allergic reaction and I had 4 cats, two with long hair. When I move in August I will be staying with my son for a few months and his wife has already consulted with her physician regarding allergy shots since I will be bringing my cats (one of the longhairs has passed), the son who still lives at home is already whining about the cats. However, I do wonder about their allergies since they had all come to visit quite a few years ago, had dinner and sat on the couch, the then kids on the floor and nobody was complaining about allergies to cats then. We'll see how that's going to turn out come August. I will have an open mind that allergies can pop up later but at this point I am rather skeptical about these two particular people.

Id like to see her try allergy shots. Several times a week getting poked in the arm and having to sit there for an hour is no fun. And it doesn't cure, just lessen and takes a while to kick in. I don't regret doing allergy shot but it isn't a quick or perfect fix.

 

[Max's Human]

As a child my folks were told that we should move to the desert due to "pet allergies". Despite being told I would NEVER be able to have feathers or fur without misery, MAX and MOUSE were never told about this since they snuggle with me, sometimes right up against my face.

 

[Kflowers]

Since you are allergic to dust, be aware that your cat will go under every piece of furniture that he can. Given time he'll wash himself so he won't be dusty. You might want to be sure to vacuum under every thing including on the tops of your books in your bookshelf. And that shelf in the closet that you put the stuff you don't want to throw away but will probably never wear.

 

[segelkatt]

A few decades ago (yes, I'm that old) when my children were pre-teens I had read an article that said when a family had a "big brother" the younger children were unlikely to have common allergies. The reasoning was that "big brothers" were dirty creatures who brought all kinds of germs home (this was before people hovered over their kids but pushed them out of the house to go play but stay within hollering distance) and thus the smaller ones were exposed to all those germs at a very young, even baby age and built up a resistance to them. Same thing went for families who had pets and introduced the pets to their babies at a young age. Perhaps this is true as even my youngest who had a severe heart condition and thus was susceptible to infections was hardly ever ill with the various illnesses that kids will get, even got over the mumps without any difficulties (don't yell, there was no vaccine against that yet) and she had TWO "big dirty brothers", a cat and a dog! I truly believe that parents are too careful about trying to keep every germ away from their children. Forget about hand sanitizers, just wash your hands often and keep them out of your face.

 

[misty8723]

That seems very unlikely. We've been letting the cats in the bedroom ever since we had cats and neither of us has developed an allergy.

 

[Max's Human]

When I was in high school everyone and their brother would bring me orphaned baby birds (wild babies) and at one time I had 12 babies, black birds, starlings, finches, sparrows and they hung out with FRED and ETHEL, my parakeets. Oh, and I had 3 mice too. No allergies but lots of poop and poop rags!

 

[daftcat75]

I was allergic to cats from childhood. Then the one I had before Krista, Cabernet (“Cabbie”) just a bite-sized kitten at the time took a real shine to me despite my allergies. I was just a summer boarder at the time (not even a room of my own yet while waiting for previous tenants to vacate.). So I had no say in the kittens in the household or even where they wanted to sleep those first few nights until I could move into a room. Me being allergic, I was most appealing to Cabbie. That first night we worked out an agreement. She can’t sleep by my face but she can bed down at my hip. From the first night, I was her favorite. Two weeks of miserable allergies. Then I was over it. I haven’t been allergic to cats since. Years later, my friends would move to an apartment that didn’t allow pets and Cabbie came to live out her days with me.

 

[FelisCatus]

I read this article that says you're at risk of becoming sensitized to your cat if you first got cats as an adult and have other allergies (I got my boy as an adult and am allergic to dust)
https://www.medpagetoday.com/allergyimmunology/allergy/30407
It also says that those who don't let their cat into their room are less likely to become allergic to cats. I have been trying to follow this advice but I've recently been letting my cat into my room once every 2-3 weeks or a month because he's started calling outside my room at night and my heart crumbled. I change the sheets and vaccuum the bed and pillows etc the day after I let him into the room. Do you think I'm still putting myself at risk?

This is one of the most ridiculous cat related falsehoods I have ever read, up there with cats sucking the air out of babies lmao.

I have been sleeping side by side besides cats since I was a baby... almost 30 years later and I have 0 allergies, except to bullpoop .

Your cat clearly loves you and wants to snuggle with you while you sleep! You’re certainly missing out if you don’t let them into your room.