The study published in the journal PLoS One suggests the increase may be linked to a shortfall in out-of-hours primary care services.
Investigating unplanned hospital admission of children aged under ten between 1996 and 2006, researchers found longer stays actually decreased by 12 per cent.
However stays of less than two days almost doubled and overall, there was a 22 per cent increase in the rate of children's unplanned hospital admissions.
Dr Sonia Saxena from Imperial College London and her colleagues from St George's Healthcare NHS Trust and the UCL Institute of Child Health
Researchers claimed that in many cases the illnesses which hospitalised the children were usually minor and could in fact have been treated in the community, rather than in hospital.
The authors of the study say there are many explanations for the increase in unplanned hospital admissions, one of which may be that parents are taking their sick children to the accident and emergency departments because they are having problems accessing other services, such as their GP, outside normal working hours.
The new study, however, did not examine whether the children had seen a GP before their hospital visit, or look in detail at the causes of admission.
Dr Saxena, from Imperial College London, said: 'Our study suggests that too many children may be being admitted to hospital with minor illnesses.
'Short, unplanned stays in hospital are expensive for the health service and can be very disruptive for families, as well as putting the child at risk of hospital acquired infection unnecessarily.
'We believe our research has highlighted a problem in the healthcare system. Many of the minor illnesses that seem to be leading to hospital admission, such as asthma and feverish illness, may be better dealt with by GPs in the community, where the children can receive better continuity of care.'
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