---
title: "Can children get Legionnaires' disease? The risk to babies, children and young people"
source_url: https://legionella.io/articles/can-children-get-legionnaires-disease/
canonical_url: https://legionella.io/articles/can-children-get-legionnaires-disease/
pillar: "Legionella Basics & Science"
summary: "Legionnaires' disease is uncommon in healthy children but not impossible. The real exceptions - newborns, immunocompromised kids and birth pools - explained."
primary_keyword: "can children get Legionnaires disease"
date_published: 2026-06-06
date_reviewed: 2026-06-26
author: "Legionella.io editorial team (REMOTE TECH LTD)"
reviewed_against: "HSE L8 and HSG274 guidance"
region: "United Kingdom"
license: "(c) REMOTE TECH LTD. Quote freely with attribution and a link to source_url."
---

# Can children get Legionnaires' disease? The risk to babies, children and young people

Yes, but it is uncommon. A child can catch Legionnaires' disease, yet otherwise-healthy babies and children very rarely do. The illness overwhelmingly strikes older adults. The genuine exceptions are newborns, children with weakened immune systems, and a small number of birth-pool exposures.

If you are a parent who read the word "Legionella" on a school letter or a holiday-let notice and felt a jolt of worry, that opening is the honest version of the reassurance you came for. The fuller answer, and the handful of situations where the worry is warranted, is below.

## Why children are rarely the ones who fall ill

Legionnaires' disease is a serious lung infection caught by breathing in tiny droplets of water carrying *Legionella* bacteria — from showers, taps, spa pools, water features and air-conditioning cooling towers, anywhere water is broken into a fine mist [1]. Everyone in a building breathes the same air and meets the same droplets. What differs is what happens next, and that turns almost entirely on the strength of the lungs and immune system meeting the bacteria.

A healthy child's defences usually clear an inhaled dose before it can take hold. That is why the recognised risk factors — being over 45, smoking, heavy drinking, long-term lung or kidney disease, a suppressed immune system — describe an older adult, not a toddler [1]. When public-health bodies count confirmed cases, the great majority fall in middle-aged and older people, and cases in children are rare [2]. UK surveillance shows the same age pattern year after year [4]. [Who is most at risk of Legionnaires' disease? Susceptible groups explained](https://legionella.io/articles/who-is-most-at-risk-of-legionnaires-disease-susceptible-groups-explained/) sets out the full susceptibility picture, and children sit at the low end of it.

So the reassurance is real, and it rests on biology rather than luck. But "rare" is not "never", and the exceptions matter precisely because they involve the children parents worry about most.

## The genuine exceptions

Three situations move a child from "very low risk" toward "worth real attention".

**Newborns, especially around water birth.** A neonate's immune system is immature, and a baby delivered in water can, in rare circumstances, inhale or swallow pool water during those first breaths [3]. Documented neonatal Legionnaires' infection is uncommon, but it is the reason maternity services control birthing-pool water seriously rather than casually. [Birthing pools and water births: managing Legionella in maternity settings](https://legionella.io/articles/birthing-pools-and-water-births-managing-legionella-in-maternity-settings/) explains how a fixed, heated pool can behave like a small spa system and why the fill water matters so much. If you are planning a water birth, this is the one childhood scenario where Legionella control is a front-line clinical concern rather than a background one.

**Children with weakened immune systems.** A child on chemotherapy, after a transplant, on long-term immunosuppressive medication, or born with a condition that suppresses immunity carries the same vulnerability that makes adults susceptible [2]. For these children the protective margin a healthy immune system provides is reduced, which is why hospitals running paediatric oncology, transplant and intensive-care services treat their water systems as a clinical risk and follow dedicated healthcare water-safety guidance.

**Children with significant lung disease.** Severe, long-standing respiratory conditions can lower a child's ability to clear an inhaled infection, nudging the risk upward in the same way chronic lung disease does for adults [1].

Outside these groups, a well child playing under a garden hose or having a bath is not the population Legionnaires' disease targets.

## What parents are told, and what is actually true

Worry tends to attach to the wrong things. Here is where the common assumptions and the evidence part company.

| What people assume | What the evidence says |
|---|---|
| A healthy child is at high risk because they're small | Otherwise-healthy children rarely develop Legionnaires' disease; the recognised risk factors describe older adults [1][2] |
| A sick child must have caught it from another child | Legionnaires' disease does not normally spread from person to person — it comes from inhaled water droplets, not from other people [2] |
| Drinking the water gave my child Legionnaires' | You don't catch it from drinking water; infection comes from breathing in or, rarely, aspirating contaminated droplets [1][3] |
| Any nursery with Legionella is dangerous to the children | The legal duty to control Legionella applies regardless of occupant age, but the people most at risk on a nursery site are usually susceptible adults, not the children [1] |
| Newborns face the same low risk as older children | Newborns, particularly around water birth, are a genuine exception and are managed more cautiously [2][3] |

If you take one row away, make it the second: this is not an illness that passes between children. A diagnosis in one child does not put the others at risk of catching it from them [2].

## If your child is unwell, get them seen

This article explains risk; it does not diagnose anyone, and it is not medical advice. If your child has a high temperature, a cough, fast or laboured breathing, unusual drowsiness, or simply seems seriously unwell, get medical help — contact your GP, ring NHS 111, or call 999 if their breathing is badly affected. Mention whether they may have been exposed to spray from a spa pool, an unfamiliar shower or a water feature. The symptom picture and the lines for when to act are set out in [Legionnaires' disease symptoms: early warning signs and when to see a doctor](https://legionella.io/articles/legionnaires-disease-symptoms-early-warning-signs-and-when-to-see-a-doctor/). Decisions about testing and treatment belong to clinicians, not to a website.

## If you run a nursery or childcare setting

The honest framing for providers is different from the one for parents. The children in your care are low clinical risk, but your duty to assess and control Legionella does not flex to their age — it applies to you as an employer and occupier just as it would in an office [1]. The people on site for whom contaminated spray could genuinely matter are the susceptible adults: a key worker returning from chemotherapy, a pregnant colleague, a grandparent on the school run. [Legionella in nurseries and early years settings](https://legionella.io/articles/legionella-in-nurseries-and-early-years-settings/) walks through the proportionate, setting-specific controls — flushing little-used taps, not leaving water play standing, managing the scald-prevention valves — without scaring anyone about the toddlers. What your premises actually needs is a judgement for a competent person assessing your real water system; this is general guidance, not a risk assessment or legal advice for your building.

## What to do next

If you landed here as a worried parent, the practical step is small: stop worrying about your healthy child catching Legionnaires' from ordinary water, and instead note the two things that do warrant a question. If a water birth is on your plan, ask the unit how they control the birthing-pool water and how often it is tested. If your child is immunocompromised or has serious lung disease, raise Legionella exposure with their clinical team rather than trying to manage it yourself.

If you run a setting where children are present, the move today is to confirm a proportionate Legionella risk assessment exists for your premises and that someone is genuinely flushing the quiet outlets — because the duty, and the susceptible adults who share the building, are reason enough on their own.

## FAQ

### Can a newborn baby get Legionnaires' disease?

It is uncommon, but newborns are the clearest childhood exception, because their immune systems are immature and a baby born in water can in rare cases inhale or swallow pool water [2][3]. That is why maternity units control birthing-pool water carefully. For a healthy newborn being bathed in ordinary domestic water, the risk remains very low [1].

### Is Legionnaires' disease common in children?

No. The great majority of confirmed cases occur in middle-aged and older adults, and cases in otherwise-healthy children are rare [2][4]. The children who warrant more attention are newborns and those with weakened immune systems or serious lung conditions [1].

### Can my child catch Legionnaires' disease from a paddling pool, bath or garden hose?

Filling a paddling pool fresh, running a bath or briefly using a hose is low-risk for a healthy child. The risk rises only when water has sat warm and stagnant long enough to grow bacteria and is then thrown into the air as a fine spray — so empty and refill paddling pools rather than topping up days-old water, and let a garden hose run off before children play near the spray [3].

### Can one child catch Legionnaires' disease from another?

Almost never. Legionnaires' disease does not normally spread from person to person; it is caught from contaminated water droplets, not from other people [2]. A case in a child does not put other children at risk of catching it from them.

## Related reading

- [Who is most at risk of Legionnaires' disease? Susceptible groups explained](https://legionella.io/articles/who-is-most-at-risk-of-legionnaires-disease-susceptible-groups-explained/)
- [Legionella in nurseries and early years settings](https://legionella.io/articles/legionella-in-nurseries-and-early-years-settings/)
- [Birthing pools and water births: managing Legionella in maternity settings](https://legionella.io/articles/birthing-pools-and-water-births-managing-legionella-in-maternity-settings/)
- [Legionnaires' disease symptoms: early warning signs and when to see a doctor](https://legionella.io/articles/legionnaires-disease-symptoms-early-warning-signs-and-when-to-see-a-doctor/)

## Sources

[1] NHS, "Legionnaires' disease". https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/legionnaires-disease/
[2] CDC, "About Legionnaires' Disease". https://www.cdc.gov/legionella/about/index.html
[3] CDC, "How Legionella Spreads". https://www.cdc.gov/legionella/causes/index.html
[4] UKHSA, "Legionellosis in residents of England and Wales: 2024". https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/legionellosis-in-residents-of-england-and-wales-2024/legionellosis-in-residents-of-england-and-wales-2024