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Background: Preschoolers suffer frequently from infections. Although nutrition plays a key role in immune function, very little is known about the impact of overall diet on preschoolers' infections., Objective: To assess the associations between dietary patterns, common infections and antibiotic use among Finnish preschoolers., Design: The study included 721 3-6-year-old preschoolers participating in the cross-sectional DAGIS survey. Parents retrospectively reported the number of common colds, gastroenteritis episodes and antibiotic courses their children had acquired during the past year. Food consumption outside preschool hours was recorded using a food frequency questionnaire. Dietary patterns were derived from the consumption frequencies using principal component analysis. Associations between the thirds of the dietary pattern scores and the outcomes were analysed using logistic and negative binomial regression models., Results: Prevalence of common colds was lower in moderate and high adherence to the sweets-and-treats pattern than in low adherence (prevalence ratio [PR]: 0.89, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.80-1.00, and PR: 0.88, 95% CI: 0.79-0.99, respectively) and higher in high adherence to the health-conscious pattern than in low adherence (PR: 1.13, 95% CI: 1.01-1.27) after adjusting for age, sex, number of children living in the same household, frequency of preschool attendance, family's highest education and probiotic use. The risk of ≥1 gastroenteritis episode and the prevalence of antibiotic courses were lower in moderate adherence to the sweets-and-treats pattern than in low adherence (odds ratio [OR]: 0.63, 95% CI: 0.44-0.92 and PR: 0.77, 95% CI: 0.59-1.00, respectively)., Conclusions: The results were unexpected. Parents who were most health-conscious of their children's diet might also have been more aware of their children's illness., Competing Interests: The authors declare no potential conflicts of interest. This research was funded by Folkhälsan Research Center, University of Helsinki, the Ministry of Education and Culture in Finland, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, the Academy of Finland (Grants: 285439, 287288, 288038, 315816), the Juho Vainio Foundation, the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation, the Finnish Cultural Foundation/South Ostrobothnia Regional Fund, the Päivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation, Medicinska Föreningen Liv och Hälsa, Finnish Foundation for Nutrition Research and Finnish Food Research Foundation. Open access funded by Helsinki University Library. None of the funders had any role in the design, analysis or writing of this article., (© 2023 Henna Peltonen et al.)