This past weekend, the 62nd Congress of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics was held in Seville, where pediatricians from all over Spain met to explain news and discuss various issues related to the profession and the health of children.
One of the issues they discussed is that of infectious diseases that children "catch" in nurseries or nursery schools and, ensuring the health of the little ones, they said that it is not advisable to take children to daycare before two years.
Why this recommendation?
As they explained, it is estimated that a child who goes to a nursery school will suffer ten febrile processes a year, almost one a month. This, of course, is an average, because we all know some child who goes to daycare and endures like a soap and at the other end some of those children who have had to be erased because they paid for not going.
They added that about 200 viruses responsible for the common cold have been described, viruses that are spread through saliva when children cough over the objects they use, the surfaces they pass through and the toys they touch.
It is logical, children, until sometime between two to six years, have a tremendously immature immune system. This makes them have an amazing facility to catch infections and, since their groupmates have the same facility, viruses grow like foam and children fall like flies.
What if I don't have another one?
Of course, now come the questions of mothers and fathers who have no choice but to take their children to daycare: what can they do? And the answer is clear, if there is no other, then the child has to go because someone has to take care of him. There they should take special care with the hygiene of children, their hands, toys, surfaces, to prevent infections as much as possible.
Further, parents must be responsible for the health of their children and, if they are sick, do not take them to prevent other children from infecting them with something else and that their children do not infect those of others. This is sad to say, but sometimes educators play an essential role when they use their clinical eye at the door to see that a child arrives ill and kindly ask their father or mother to take it home.
As Carlos González says, nursery school, nursery schools, are a good solution to a labor and family reconciliation problem. Beyond that, if parents can combine it to be with the child, or if any grandmother or grandfather is willing to do so, the best place to be is at home, where the number of viruses is much lower and the probability of infection is much lower.
With regard to socialization, there is no hurry either. There will be time in school to play with other children, to know more social norms than are used at home and also to get a few viruses. And if you follow the advice of pediatricians, going to daycare with two years, the risk of suffering an infection will be lower, since they will have more defenses.
