Researcher maps microbes at daycare centres
Mathematician (and mom) hopes to minimize areas where germs build up
Starting daycare is an exciting time for families.
Adults get to do more adulting and kids get to do a deep dive into child’s play. With that, though, comes at least one drawback, namely, the beginning of what can seem like the never-ending, recurring cycle of ear infections, sniffles, coughs and, best of all, stomach flu.
It’s not unusual for kids to get a half-dozen colds per year — roughly twice as many as adults. And, to some degree, this onslaught of illness is an unavoidable part of daycare, elementary school and just growing up in general. Since kids have to be exposed to all the different common bugs at some point to build up their immune systems, a certain number of colds are inevitable. But could daycare centres be strategically redesigned to minimize the number of bugs that get passed around?
That’s the question Monica Cojocaru, associate professor at the University of Guelph’s mathematics and statistics department, wondered about every time she had to pick up her son from daycare because he’d come down with something. It wasn’t an unusual number of illnesses, just what she guessed every working parent deals with in the winter cold and flu season.
“I used to have many conversations about it with other parents,” she said. At one point, the former director of the childcare centre told Cojocaru that she was considering getting a researcher to look into how germs are spread.
To which Cojocaru replied, “I am that person.”
As a mathematician, Cojocaru had an idea of the model they’d need to map out the toddlers’ frequent moves throughout the day and pinpointing sites of transmission. And, since her son’s daycare, the University of Guelph’s Child Care and Learning Centre, is designed to be a teaching facility, it was an ideal setting for the study. It is equipped with observation rooms, making the data much easier to collect.
The first phase of the ongoing research is quite basic. “We really just count how many times they touch their things or get close to each other or sneeze on each other,” she said. “Toddlers, of course, don’t quite get the idea of personal space or hygiene, so there’s many instances of close contact, kissing and hugging and other cute things, even at the same time that there’s coughing and sneezing.”
Cojocaru is hoping to get a clear picture of “smart design” principles for daycares that will minimize hot-spot areas where germs build up. Prime suspect areas include bathrooms, which might be redesigned to encourage better handwashing practices, toy boxes, bookshelves and play areas with mats, especially those in the corners of rooms, where kids tend to congregate.
But identifying these hotspots doesn’t mean parents should tell their kids to stay away from the toy box or play areas.
“I personally wouldn’t start scrutinizing which areas of the daycare are more risky and which toys might carry viruses,” said Dr. Dan Flanders, a parent, pediatrician and owner of midtown Toronto’s Kindercare Pediatrics. But the study might help daycares and regulatory boards make better informed decisions, he said.
While we wait for design principles to be reimagined, parents can do plenty to minimize the spread of germs, Flanders said. Getting a flu shot, for instance, is recommended for almost all children over the age of six months. If every child in daycare was inoculated against the flu, influenza rates at daycare centres would go down.
For viruses other than influenza, Toronto Public Health suggests parents familiarize themselves and their children with “proper respiratory etiquette,” which involves turning your head away when sneezing or coughing, using tissues and properly disposing of them and washing your hands well after sneezing and coughing. Beyond that, people are encouraged to keep their kids at home when they have a respiratory infection.
For some families that’s easier said than done. Parents might be tempted to view their child’s symptoms at the breakfast table through a lens of wishful thinking if they’re worried they’re risking their job by staying home.
“That’s when the theoretical best practice principles collide with real life,” Flanders said. “Some employers get it and some employers don’t. Some parents get it and some parents don’t.”
Hopefully though, once the work at Guelph is wrapped up, parents won’t have to make those choices quite as often.