VOA英语2010年-Daycare Infections May Help Kids Avoid Later

Around the world, a woman's place is increasingly in a factory or shop, a government ministry¹, or in front of a classroom. As more women work, their children often spend the day in childcare. And with that exposure to other children, it seems the kids often get sick with things like respiratory and ear infections. New research confirms that, but there's a silver lining² in the sickness.

A research team led by Sylvana C?té of the University of Montréal looked at data from a large study that tracked the health of a group of Canadian youngsters for almost their first decade of life. She found that some of the children were more likely to get sick from the kinds of infections typically passed around a daycare center.

The daycare kids - who had been more likely to get sick then - were more likely to avoid infections when they entered elementary school a few years later.

"Children who started childcare early - that is, before two-and-a-half years - and who attended childcare where there were a large group of children, they have lower rates of infection than children who either never went to daycare or children who went to small-group daycare."

C?té says her study was not really designed to explain why children who started daycare as toddlers with numerous other youngsters had fewer infections years later. But she says other studies give clues as to what might be happening.

"We know that, for instance for asthma³, that repeated stimulation⁴ of the immune system at an early age may lead to increased protection. And that may be a possible mechanism⁵ explaining why earlier [exposure] is leading to that protective effect."

So if it is a tradeoff - if the child who is less likely to get sick by not being in a daycare setting is more likely to get sick a few years later in school - what's the difference? C?té says there's a non-medical reason why it might be best to get sick earlier: it reduces the risk of having to stay home from school.

"We argue in the paper that missing school when you're starting to learn to read or when you learn to write may be more problematic for the future academic trajectory⁶ than missing daycare days," she said.

Sylvana C?té describes her research in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, a journal of the American Medical Association.

1 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

2 lining   

n.衬里，衬料

参考例句：

• The lining of my coat is torn.我的外套衬里破了。
• Moss makes an attractive lining to wire baskets.用苔藓垫在铁丝篮里很漂亮。

3 asthma   

n.气喘病，哮喘病

参考例句：

• I think he's having an asthma attack.我想他现在是哮喘病发作了。
• Its presence in allergic asthma is well known.它在过敏性气喘中的存在是大家很熟悉的。

4 stimulation   

n.刺激，激励，鼓舞

参考例句：

• The playgroup provides plenty of stimulation for the children.幼儿游戏组给孩子很多启发。
• You don't get any intellectual stimulation in this job.你不能从这份工作中获得任何智力启发。

5 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

6 trajectory   

n.弹道，轨道

参考例句：

• It is not difficult to sketch the subsequent trajectory.很容易描绘出它们最终的轨迹。
• The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory.抛物体所循的路径称为它的轨道。