Day care and respiratory infection.
Medical opinion on day care for young children since the 1940s is reviewed with emphasis on risks of respiratory illnesses. Recent knowledge about respiratory infections and the dissemination of viruses among day care children has (1) ascertained the importance of simple preventive measures; (2) modified the value of strict isolation of each child with respiratory symptoms, and (3) emphasized that medical treatment should be kept for complicated illnesses and a few particularly infection-prone children. Child health services, parents and day care personnel should develop principles for the care of children with minor respiratory illnesses, mainly leaving the responsibility for the sick child with the parents.
D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002668:Child Rearing; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000635:transmission; D003631:Day Care, Medical / Q000639:trends*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012537:Scandinavian and Nordic Countries; D012922:Social Change