Day Care and Asthma - ways to lessen the chance of childhood asthma

Pediatrics for Parents, May, 2001

How can you lessen the chances of your child developing asthma? Here's two ways: have your child attend day care and have an older sibling.

Researchers followed 1,035 children from birth. They found an inverse relationship between asthma incidence at ages 6-13 years and with both attending day care and having older siblings. Twelve percent of the children who either had one or more older sibling or had attended day care before age six years developed asthma. This compares to 21% in the control group (no day care attendance and had no older siblings).

Interestingly, the same children who were less likely to develop asthma were more likely to have one or more "wheezing illnesses" during preschool years.

This study seems to support the theory that early infections lessen the chances of later developing asthma. Children who attend day care at a young age are naturally exposed to more viral and bacterial infections, so they have more illnesses. The same applies to living with older siblings who bring home the illnesses they are exposed to.

The New England Journal of Medicine, 8/24/00, pp. 538-43.

Michael K. Meyerhoff, Ed.D., a former researcher with the Harvard Preschool Project, is executive director of The Epicenter Inc., "The Education for Parenthood Information Center," a family advisory and advocacy agency located in Lindenhurst, Il. epicntrinc@aol.com.