Daycare and Children’s Health. Center-based daycare is related to children’s health problems. Compared with peers who were cared for at home, preschoolers who attended daycare centers used health-care services more often. Daycare children were at greater risk of contracting both minor communicable illnesses and more significant medical problems such as hepatitis, injuries, and chronic otitis media (ear infections). They were three times more likely to have made at least one visit to a doctor’s office, twice as likely to have visited an emergency room, and almost three times as likely to have received a prescription medication. This increased use of health services resulted in health-care expenditures for daycare children that were, on average, $343 higher per child each year.