Attending playgroup could lower childhood illness rates

As anyone with a child attending nursery or playgroup will know, illnesses have a way of whipping through a group of kids like wildfire. Now it seems all the bugs and infections that kids pick up earlier on in life may actually help them ward off more serious diseases.

Scientists in America have conducted a massive review of children with relation to childhood leukaemia and say that their first findings show that children who attend day care of playgroups before the age of one of two may reduce their chance of developing leukaemia by around 30%. They looked at reports on 6,108 children with leukaemia and 13,704 without the disease.

It's thought that by picking up bugs when they're young, children's immune systems may learn how to respond appropriately to fighting illness. Those who don't pick up so many illnesses may later on react 'inappropriately' to illness and make them more susceptible to developing cancer.

'We don't completely understand the mechanisms but immunological data is emerging which suggests a strong association,' said Dr Patricia Buffler, professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health of the University of California, Berkeley. She added that the findings may show that parents have a 'window of opportunity' when it comes to helping their children develop their immune systems.

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