This isn't really a surprise. More exposure leads to more natural immunities being built up to fight future illness.

"one can argue that there is an advantage of not missing school days, when they're missing major education that's really the basis of their academic trajectory"...

as if parents don't do any teaching at home? as if the formative years before age 5 don't matter? one sentence, not a big deal. but I'm just sayin'...

So what doesn't kill you , makes you stronger. Inspiring.

And these findings are novel? I can't believe it made msnbc front page, must be a boring day.

I could have told you that. I missed tons of workdays staying home with my son when he was a little bitty guy and catching everything. Now halfway through second grade he's missed precisely one day of elementary school for sickness, and truth is, I was probably being a softie and he didn't really need to miss that day.

Ever have a preschooler who had to have repeated ear surgeries (tubes every year) because of those "no permanent harm" ear infections? Ever have a child who started school behind in speech and unable to grasp phonics because of hearing problems from repeated ear infections? Had he not been super-smart and had a second grade teacher who got him extra help he would never have been able to compensate. (He is now working on a masters in stuff I don't even understand.)

Ever deal with a three year old with the chicken pox? Trust me, it is far worse than caring for the grade school sibling with it. But a three year old with chicken pox is a piece of cake compared to a one year old. Although in our case it was grade school sibling bringing it home, many parents have to deal with kids bringing home stuff far worse than colds and ear infections from daycare.

Some of us have to work, either for financial or personal reasons. Some people who have children are not temperamentally designed to be able to stay home with toddlers. Day care and babysitters are not necessarily bad. But let's quit trying to create excuses to make it sound better than being taken care of at home by mom. Sounds like a reverse of the 50s/60s when they were constantly trying to make working mothers feel guilty for not staying home, just now we are trying to prove daycare is better instead.

Epidemiologists have been routinely describing this for about a century now. Beyond strengthened immunity, quality daycare is good for kids in very many ways.

Another "Big "DUH" article. Any pediatrician or parent could have told them that and they wouldn't have had to waste their money.