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Subject:
From:
Katherine Dettwyler <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sat, 24 Mar 2001 07:38:53 -0500
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Although I'm not aware of any specific studies on the theory that exposure
to germs in day care results in less sickness during elementary school, it
certainly is true for chicken pox.  Children used to not get chicken pox
until the early elementary years, when entire classrooms of first and second
graders would be struck low by chicken pox.  In 1986, for example, my
daughter's first grade class all had the chicken pox together, 28 out of 32
children sick at once (the other 4 had already had it).  But as more and
more children started going to daycare at earlier and earlier ages, the
average age at which children got chicken pox started to fall.  My youngest,
born in 1991, had chicken pox at 18 months, along with his entire daycare
class.  They *all* had chicken pox over the course of a six-week period.  By
the time he got to public school, most of the kids had had chicken pox
already, so you didn't see entire classes of first and second graders
getting sick any more.

This is not to suggest that this is necessarily a good thing, although I
think the elementary school teachers are glad that students are not missing
'real school' -- that their lost days were in daycare, when it didn't matter
so much.

As with many diseases, it is best not to get chicken pox either too early or
too late.  It can be devastating in newborns, and in teenagers and adults.
And of course now there's a vaccine, so no one needs to get chicken pox any
more.  Mattel has a new doll out call Love 'N Care Kelly, who appears to be
about 6 years of age, and who has the chicken pox.  She comes with a bed,
and a wand you can use to wipe her face to make the pox disappear.  She also
comes with a new dress to wear when she "goes back to school."  Mattel is
behind the times, as Kelly really should be a toddler, not a 6 year old.

In evolutionary terms, before people started moving often and flying around
to all parts of the world and bringing back "exotic" germs, it was typical
that a child was exposed to everything nasty in its environment during the
first few years of life, when it was still breastfeeding, and so had both
its own and its mother's immune system to count on to fight off infections.
By the time the child was about 6 years old, or so, it had been exposed to
all the usual germs and had either died from them (and many did die) or had
survived and was now immune to all the viral diseases (measles, chicken pox,
diphtheria, pertussis, etc.) and some parasitic diseases such as malaria.
From that age til old age, they were relatively healthy, until finally in
old age the immune system craters.  Because there was less moving around or
bringing in of "exotic" diseases by travellers, they weren't exposed to
anything in adulthood that they hadn't already had in childhood.

Today we live in a very different world -- one in which Western children
sometimes live in hyper-sanitized environments, and yet also one in which
anybody can step off a plane and bring polia, malaria, ebola, etc. into our
communities from afar.  Luckily, we have immunizations, antibiotics, and
good water/sewage systems to help us out.  It still helps immensely to be
breastfed for many years!!  I don't think it is good for formula-fed
children to get sick over and over in early childhood.

Kathy Dettwyler




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