One of the reasons many parents say that they put their children into daycare or early preschool is so the kids will be exposed to more germs and therefore get their illnesses over with before they reach school age, when absence from school may have more of an impact.
I knew a mom once who firmly believed in the idea of exposing her kids early to illnesses. In fact, she ran a day care, and if a child came in sick, she would make sure that her children were playing with that child and sharing toys, in order to increase their exposure to germs early.
In the interest of disclosure, I am one of those moms that not only does not like daycare or preschool (tried them both, and they just didn’t work for my family) and who carries hand sanitizer everywhere I go with my kids.
Another theory goes that I may actually be harming my children by not exposing them early to as many germs as possible, setting them up for allergies and asthma later in life.
But a recent study that followed kids at age eight, found that kids who attended day care and early preschool were not more immune to allergies and asthma. The quote from an article on HealthDay about the study says:
“We found no evidence for any protection for asthma, allergy and airway hyper-responsiveness at 8 years,” said Dr. Johan C. de Jongste, professor of pediatric respiratory medicine at Erasmus University Medical Center in the Netherlands, who led the study.
The study was published in the Sept. 15 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
So while there may be very good reasons for placing your child in daycare and early preschool, including enabling parents to work and promoting some social interaction, it can’t necessarily be used as a health strategy for your kids.
You can read more blog posts by Mary Ann Romans here!
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