Frequent infections in nursery help toddlers build up immune systems
The paper is "Germ factories or immune boot camps? Infection and immunity in childcare settings". tl;dr:
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Young children who attend nursery get sick more often than those who don’t, but they will go on to have fewer illnesses during early school years.
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A typical one-year-old starting nursery will experience around 12–15 respiratory infections, two gastrointestinal illnesses (diarrhoea and vomiting), and one or two rash-causing infections in the first year alone – which will all have a substantial knock-on effect for working parents.
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Employers need to recognise that it’s normal for parents of young children to regularly need to take time off work to care for their children, and will also be more prone to getting sick themselves – but this will improve as the child ages.
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Children who attend nursery at a young age experience more infections from age one to five than those who remain at home until starting school – but then once they’ve started school, this pattern is reversed as children without prior childcare experience get sick more often.
The paper is here: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/items/95b322b6-aef4-4b17-bf23-60aa7f5938b1
Tags: germs infection immunity immune-system children parenting childcare kindergarten kids diseases sickness
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