A new study has found kids in families that wash their dishes by hand are less likely to develop allergies compared to those using dishwashers.

Researchers in Sweden looked at whether several behaviors that expose children to bacteria early in life might keep them from allergies later on.

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The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, used an idea known as the "hygiene hypothesis."

The hypothesis speculates the reason children acquire so many allergies today is because their environments are simply too clean. These children's immune systems can't develop tolerance to trivial threats like allergies as they ideally should without exposure to bacteria early in life.

For the recent study, researchers observed 1,029 Swedish children aged seven to eight and their parents from the Gothenburg area of Sweden.

Some of the studied behaviors included parents letting their children eat food brought directly from farms or fermented foods with beneficial probiotic bacteria and whether parents washed their utensils by hand or used a dishwasher.

Researchers also examined if the children had allergies like asthma, eczema or hay fever.

The findings suggest kids raised in households where the family hand-washed dishes instead of using a machine have fewer allergies.

Only 23 percent of the kids whose parents used hand dishwashing had a trace of eczema, unlike the 38 percent of kids whose families used machine dishwashing.

Furthermore, researchers also observed the result was amplified when the children ate fermented food or food purchased directly from farms.

Although it's not clear whether the studied behaviors directly led to fewer allergies, there's still a possibility these behaviors expose children to harmless bacteria that can help children strengthen their immune system, said lead author Dr. Bill Hasselmar from the University of Gothenburg.

 Dr. Hasselmar added that more research is needed to confirm the findings of the study.

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