Parents of young kids more often get sick

It seems that kids really are "wandering bacteria bombs" that bring bacteria back from daycare to make their parents sick, according to research by Statistics Netherlands. Parents of young kids get sick more often than parents with older kids or adults with no kids,

At various times over last year Statistics Netherlands asked its respondents whether they had cold or flu in the previous two months. 40 percent of all Dutch answered yes to that question. Among parents with kids under the age of four, 56 percent said they suffered from colds and flu in the previous months. 42 percent of parents with kids between 4 and 12 were sick, 34 percent of parents with kids over 12 and only 33 percent of adults with no kids at home.

Among the toddlers themselves, 74 percent were sick. That dropped to 52 percent in the age group 4 to 12 years and to 45 percent in the age group 12 to 16 years.