Infant Day Care May Cut Allergy Risk Later On

Day care attendance among infants may protect against the development of allergies later in life, according to a study of 500 children with a parental history of allergies. As reported in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, children who attended day care during their first year of life had significantly lower serum immunoglobulin E levels by age 2 years, compared with children who did not attend day care (12.9 vs 18.5 IU/mL). Although day care attendance had no effect on the risk for asthma at age 4, the researchers speculated that a protective effect might not be observed until later in life.