Researchers have revealed how many illnesses children get in their first year of nursery – and why it makes them more resilient to bugs when they start school.
It comes after experts decided to put together the first major study of the impact of illness among youngsters after noticing how frequently their own children were sick during the first year of formal childcare.
The authors also said that vaccination is one of the most effective things parents can do to protect their children from illnesses.
Toddlers and pre-schoolers will get 15 illnesses in their first year of nursery, leading to around 13 days off through sickness, the study found.
This also means employers should have “realistic expectations” about the levels of sickness absence for children, parents and carers, the authors wrote in Clinical Microbiology Reviews.
The nursery settings can serve as an immune system “boot camp” which helps children to build up resilience against bugs in the years ahead, according to the research.
During their first year of formal childcare, babies and children are expected to have 12 respiratory illnesses, such as coughs and colds, the study found.
There would also be two episodes of diarrhoea and/or vomiting illness, and at least one illness that involves a rash – such as scarlet fever, slapped cheek or hand, foot and mouth.
Children who go to nursery experience more infections from age one to five than those who remain at home until starting school, the researchers said.
But once they start school, this pattern is reversed as children without prior childcare experience get sick more frequently.
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The researchers added that early exposure to illnesses in group childcare settings appears to provide some protection for the early school years, likely due to acquiring immunity to common infections.
Experts from UCL worked with colleagues from the University of Cambridge, Cornell University and North Middlesex University Hospital to examine immunology, infectious disease genomics, and epidemiology data.
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Co-author Dr Leo Swadling, from the UCL Institute of Infection, Immunity and Transplantation, added: “Newborns have some protection against infection thanks to antibodies passed from the mother, but this wanes in their first year, leaving infants – especially those starting childcare – more vulnerable to infections.
“It’s normal for children to get sick a lot because their immune systems have never seen these bugs before – but then nursery serves as a ‘boot camp’ for their immune systems, building up resilience for the years ahead.
“Vaccines are a key way to protect children from serious infections in childcare, so we encourage parents to keep their children up to date with all available vaccines.”
