Loading...
Parents and pediatricians know that sending young children to group child care leads to frequent infections. To assess the effect of these infections on the overall prevalence of childhood infections, researchers interviewed the mothers of 1238 children in Quebec. The mothers reported the frequency of respiratory infection with fever, ear infection, and gastrointestinal tract infection in the past 3 months during an 8-year period. The researchers compared children who attended large group child care (professional care for 8 to 12 children in the same setting) and small group child care (home-based care for 3 to 8 children) with children who were cared for at home.
No difference was found in mean total infections between children who attended…