Working parents often worry that small children in daycare seem to get sick all the time, and bring infections home to the family too. Some parents I know have avoided group child-care centers because they worry about long-term health effects.

A new study promises to ease some of those fears: While children placed in daycare early do tend to get sick more often, they also stay healthier than other kids later in elementary school, apparently because their daycare experience has built up their immunity against colds and other infections.

The study, released today in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, found a higher illness rate mainly in children who are placed before age 2-1/2 in child-care centers with relatively large groups of 8 to 12 children. Compared with children who were cared for in their homes, these kids had more respiratory and ear inflections during early preschool and the same risk of infection between ages 3-1/2 and 4-1/2, based on the eight-year study of 1,238 families with newborns in 1998. However, they had lower rates of infection between ages 5 and 8.

The research 'provides reassuring evidence for parents that their choices regarding child care shouldn't have a major effect' on their kids' long-term health, says the study, led by Sylvana M. Cote of Ste-Justine Hospital and the University of Montreal, Quebec. In fact, kids who start child care early 'may even gain protection against infections during the elementary-school years, when absenteeism carries more important consequences' for grades and learning.

The findings also could step up pressure on child-care centers to be less restrictive about sending home children with the sniffles.

The researchers also found that children who stayed home as infants and toddlers, then entered preschool after age 3-1/2, tended to get more ear infections in preschool, but not respiratory bugs. Researchers also studied gastrointestinal infections but didn't find any differences between children at home and those in daycare. Children in family child care, with small groups of children in a sitter's home, didn't show any differences in infection rates compared with children who stayed home.

Readers, have your children gotten sick more often in daycare? Or have they brought home minor illnesses to the rest of the family? Do you find this study reassuring in any way? Or do the hassles of frequentillnesses in toddlerhood outweigh the benefits of gaining immunity later on, in your view?