Science on parent care vs. Day care

[kandi117]

TL;DR: what is the science (if any) on the advantages/disadvantages of children between 1 and 2 y/o staying home with parent versus being in a daycare centre?

My son is 15 months. For the first year, his mom/my wife was off work taking care of him. She went back to work after a year, and I have been taking care of him since (not pat leave, but my work is remote and independent, so I fit in 5/6 hours between 7pm and 7am). Other parent friends, or random parents at the park, seem shocked when they hear that we don’t have any plans to send him to daycare before he’s 2 y/o. I hear a lot of, “our child started developing very quickly once he started in daycare.” Initially i just chalked that up to mistaking correlation for causality (we start to see them develop more quickly after 1, regardless of child care arrangements). However, I have no clue about the science around this.

Does anyone have any links to academic articles looking at the effects of different child care arrangements on measures of development?

 

[hugthelamb]

@kandi117 There appears to be some merit to the idea that children in childcare centers develop language and social skills either slightly faster or better (unclear as the study didn't track further into adulthood as far as I can see). But there are some downsides as well, mainly more sickness (duh) and possibly a slight increase in behaviour issues (as reported by parents so not free from bias)

In either case it doesn't matter as much as the family environment. So if you want to take anything away from this, I think it would be that. Childcare arrangements are by far not the most important predictor of good outcomes

https://www.psychologytoday.com/int...vs-day-care-the-impact-child-care-development

The study that article is based on (pdf) https://www.nichd.nih.gov/sites/default/files/publications/pubs/documents/seccyd_06.pdf

 

[snapdragons_]

@hugthelamb Can you say more about what are the stronger predictors of good outcomes?

 

[hugthelamb]

@snapdragons_ In short, Socioeconomic background and positive parental involvement

many family features are more strongly and more consistently linked to child development outcomes
than are child care features for children up to age 4½ (and even into kindergarten). the following
characteristics predicted children’s cognitive/language and social development: parents’ education,
family income, and two-parent family compared to single-parent family; mothers’ psychological
adjustment and sensitivity; and the social and cognitive quality of home environment.

 

[snapdragons_]

@hugthelamb Thank you! I am always so amazed how important maternal mental health is

 

[svitlana]

@hugthelamb But the more sickness is also a challenged subject right? That it might improve the immune system.

Edit: seems I was wrong, sorry!

 

[munyaku]

@svitlana It doesn't improve the immune sickness in the way you think. It's bacteria and not viruses that tend to improve our immune system. Early exposure to viruses actually does the opposite for the immune system. source

A few quotes from the above source:
"Infections with viruses mostly either contribute to the development of those diseases or worsen them.

The opposite is true of bacteria. There are good bacteria and there are bad bacteria."

"The thing about rhinoviruses is that after recovering, you’re not protected from the next infection. There is no real immune protection there. Most of us suffer from colds throughout our whole life. Like I said, bacterial exposure is what’s key to priming the immune response."

So the immune building thing that helps kids is playing in the dirt or outside with allergens not actually catching viruses.

 

[marcoamorales]

@munyaku This is anecdotal and about an adults experience as a daycare teacher, but I worked in the toddler room for one year at a daycare in 2013 and was sick as F 11 times in 12 months. Before then, I would get sick but it was rare I would get SIIIICK. After working in daycare, I swear to god it had an adverse effect on my immune system. From age 23 and on, each time I get sick it takes me longer to get well again and I develop either bronchitis or a sinus infection. Never happened before I worked at a daycare.

 

[lemar349]

@svitlana I think it is absolutely accepted that children in daycare get sicker more frequently than kids of the same age who aren’t in daycare centers, as there’s very clear data on frequency of illnesses. The caveat is that the kids who don’t go to daycare get sick more frequently once they start school than the kids who were in daycare.

So, yes, it does build immunity through exposure, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t getting sick more often while that’s happening.

Basically, every kid is going to get all the colds, it’s just a matter of when.

 

[listenhere]

@lemar349 As the above poster linked, it doesn't improve immunity. Bacteria improves health.

"Data [show] that children that have more infections in the first 6 months to a year of life go on to have more problems."

 

[crucker2]

@kandi117 https://criticalscience.medium.com/on-the-science-of-daycare-4d1ab4c2efb4

 

[kandi117]

@crucker2 Wow I really appreciate how extensive this article is in terms of works cited. Also (and this is my favourite part of science), the brief descriptions of findings are not what I expected.

Thanks so much

 

[snapdragons_]

@crucker2 Wow awesome article! Thank you for sharing

 

[cerroz]

@crucker2 This article is a very interesting read. I wonder what that means for people who have more than one child…are their children more stressed while being cared for by their mother or father, because the care is split between them?

 

[gogogo]

@kandi117 The research is pretty clear that staying home with one on one care is optimum for the child until around 3 years old.

You guys are doing great.