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I think we are at a mid sized center and both girls were fairly sick the first year. Including DH!

On the other hand I have a friend who didn't put her sick in daycare that first year and he still got plenty sick!! But she was also very active in taking him out to do stuff, so he was exposed to germs.

My son was at home for 16 months until we started him in an in-home daycare. Up until then, he'd gotten maybe 2-3 mild colds from DH and I, and he got roseola after traveling through airports when he was 12 months.

DS has been sick pretty much since the day he set foot in the daycare. He started transitional playdates in mid-December, was sick all through the holidays, and in January he was out 5 school days. He got 4 viruses one after another in January, one of which knocked DH and I flat on our butts for a good 2 weeks.

That said, February has been better and I'm optimistic that he's turning a corner. He got his first ear infection this month, so not ideal, but he hasn't been sent home for a fever yet this month (knock on wood) and he's just been much happier and cheerful, whereas in January he was a grouchy mess. His nose is still running all the time, but overall, given that he's been in daycare full-time for less than 2 months I feel like he's doing better than I expected.

I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that he's at a small in-home daycare with the same married couple caretakers and their adult daughter every day. Depending on the day, there are 4-5 tots who are under 3 during the day and then a few school age children come for aftercare in the afternoons. The big kids are usually separated from the little kids so really, my son just had to get used to germs from a handful of kids. I have no doubts it would have been much worse if he went to a big center with lots of teachers and lots of children. Our church nursery always has different kids and different volunteers and there have been a few weekends when he wasn't sick from daycare that he picked up something from church!