Risks of Child Day Care Centers

Contagious Diseases

• Perhaps the most obvious risk of day care centers is the possibility that your child will contract a contagious disease from other children who attend; diarrhea and respiratory and ear infections are common in day care centers. Doctors advise that you can reduce the risk of your child catching these illnesses by teaching him proper handwashing and other sanitary measures. However, as MedlinePlus, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine, reports, children who frequently develop infections in their day care years are less likely to suffer from them later on in life.

Respiratory Health Risks

• The contagious environment that day care centers often represent poses bigger risks to children who already have health problems than those who are in generally good health. Day care centers have been tied to the development of asthma in children, as well as more serious risks for children with chronic lung disease of prematurity. Studies of children with CLDP done by researchers at Johns Hopkins Children's Center and published in the October 2010 issue of "Pediatrics" show that those who attended day care were more likely to require trips to the emergency room or to suffer serious lung damage.

Safety Hazards

• A 1999 study of day care centers found that over a quarter did not meet the appropriate standards for child safety. Offending aspects of the centers included improper playground surfacing and maintenance, unsafe bedding and cribs, and the presence of drawstring clothes or window cords that posed strangulation hazards. Studies such as this point to the importance of properly researching your day care center. Centers are required to maintain a certain level of safety, but violations still occur. Be sure to investigate the environment of the day care center and check whether it meets the proper standards of safety for your child.

Long-Term Developmental Risks

• According to a federally-funded study published in May 2010 in the journal "Child Development," children who spent many hours in day care as preschoolers were more likely to choose risky behaviors at age 15 than those who spent their preschool years at home. The study found a modest but direct correlation between the amount of risky behavior an adolescent took and the number of hours that they had spent in day care as a child. While such behaviors are not necessarily negative -- risk-taking is also tied to creativity and taking on new challenges -- the study does show that the child care environment to which children are exposed can have long-term influence in their lives.