A review of new evidence by the Parent Scientists Group, including researchers from University College London (UCL), has found that young children who attend nursery school get sick more often than children who don’t, but are less likely to get sick during school age.
All five authors of new books Clinical Microbiology Review Papers are parents of young children and are also researchers or clinicians at UCL, Cambridge University, Cornell University and North Middlesex University Hospital. They wanted to understand how often children typically get sick while attending daycare, why children are more likely to get sick, how it affects their immune systems, and what parents can do to help.
Researchers stress that vaccination remains the best way to prevent childhood illnesses.
Co-author Dr Lucy van Dorp, an infectious disease genomics researcher at the UCL Institute of Genetics, said: “As parents, we were all shocked at how often our nine children were getting sick when they started nursery school. So we came together to carry out the first investigation into how often children who start nursery school get sick in their first year of school, and what can be done about it.”
This study brings together evidence across epidemiology, immunology, and vaccination, and highlights that disease recurrence at the start of child care is normal. The authors suggest that a typical 1-year-old in daycare will experience approximately 12 to 15 respiratory infections, 2 gastrointestinal illnesses (diarrhea and vomiting), and 1 to 2 rash-causing infections in the first year alone. All of this will have significant ramifications for working parents.
Evidence supports our real-world experience that parents face a greater burden of infectious disease after their children start daycare. ”
Dr Lucy van Dorp, Infectious Disease Genomics Researcher, UCL Institute of Genetics
Lead author of the study, Dr Charlotte Holdcroft, a virologist at the University of Cambridge, said: “We’ve all had the experience of our children coming home from nursery with bugs and feeling really unwell and sometimes needing hospital treatment.”
“However, it is important that parents follow guidelines and do not send their children home from daycare while they are sick, and depending on the type of infection, they may be kept for an additional day or two after recovery. Daycare transmission is normal and common, but it is important to do what we can to reduce its spread.”
And this situation is improving over time, with the standard of respiratory infections occurring almost every month improving year by year. Older children are less likely to test positive for the virus at once and are less likely to develop symptoms.
Dr van Dorp said: “Employers need to be aware that it is normal for parents with young children to have to take regular breaks from work to care for their children, and that they themselves are more likely to become ill, but this will improve as the child ages.”
The researchers found evidence that young children are particularly susceptible to illness, not because of unsanitary environments or daycare practices, but primarily because of their immature immune systems (before they gradually develop more mature adaptive immune responses) and the inherent transmissibility of childhood pathogens.
Co-author Dr Leo Swadling, from the UCL Institute of Infection, Immunology and Transplantation, said: ‘Newborns have some protection against infection thanks to antibodies they inherit from their mothers, but this weakens in the first year of life, leaving infants, especially young children who are starting to raise their children, more vulnerable to infections. It’s normal for children to get sick often because their immune systems have never encountered these bugs before, but daycare can act as a ‘boot camp’ for the immune system and make children more resilient.” Many years from now. ”
Researchers found evidence that children who attend day care from an early age experience more infections between the ages of one and five than those who remain at home until they start school. However, once they start school, this pattern reverses, with children without childcare experience falling ill more often. Early exposure in congregate child care settings appears to provide some protection during early school age, perhaps by developing immunity to common infections.
The authors highlight that vaccination is one of the most effective ways parents can protect their children from nursery illnesses, including the new MMRV vaccine, which protects children from measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox.
“Vaccines are an important way to protect children from serious infections during childcare, so we encourage parents to keep their children up to date on all available vaccines,” Dr. Swadling said.
sauce:
university college london
Reference magazines:
Caddy, SL, Others. (2026) Bacteria factory or immune boot camp? Infection and immunity in childcare settings. Clinical Microbiology Review. DOI: 10.1128/cmr.00253-25. https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/cmr.00253-25
