It might seem very “gross” or unsanitary for many parents, but there’s actually nothing wrong with it. There’s a new study that says parents who lick their baby’s pacifiers are actually protecting their infants from allergies. In other words, they are helping their child’s immune system by exposing their child to mom or dad’s microbes.

More often than not, a lot of parents will sanitize their child’s pacifier using either a hot stream of water or a professional sanitizer to make it as clean as possible before handing it back to their child. Well now research shows that a good lick from mom or dad might even be better. Sure, there’s a good chance that you might get funny or disturbing looks from strangers, but your child’s immune system will benefit from it.

Dr. Eliane Abou-Jaoude, an allergy and immunology fellow at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit and lead author of the new study, says that parents who “suck” on their child’s pacifier might actually help shield them from developing future allergies.

According to The Today Show, Dr. Abou-Joude says, “The microbes that a child is exposed to in infancy can affect the way their immune system develops.”

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Her team studied 128 new moms for a year and a half after giving birth. They asked them how often they cleaned their child’s pacifier and what kind of methods they used. The results of the research said that the majority of parents washed their child’s pacifier by hand, with about 41 percent actually sterilizing them. Just 12 percent admitted to popping the pacifiers in their own mouths to clean them before handing them back over to their child. And it looks like the 12 percent of moms who did this actually had children who were healthier than the others who participated in the study.

Keeping that in mind though, the research doesn’t prove that sucking on a child’s pacifier will help prevent future allergies. “This was not a cause-effect study,” said Abou-Jaoude. “We can’t say these children won’t develop allergies later on. We only have IgE levels until 18 months of age.”

Still, it sure doesn’t hurt for mom or dad to do what they need to do, especially when there’s a call for demand – the pacifier demand, that is. Lick away, moms and dads.