[Allergy presumed by parents of children in nursery schools and day care in relation to conditions of care].

By means of an interview investigation with the staffs of the 11 nursery schools in the Municipality of Odense and 344 day care homes, information was collected about the number of children who received special diets on account of allergy postulated by the parents or predisposition to allergy. 8% of the children in day care and 10% of the children i nursery schools received special diets on account of presumed allergy. Special diets are often instituted without medically documented indications. In institutions with many children on special diets, this frequently results in dietary changes for all of the children. Nursery schools have only very few possibilities for dietary advice. The dietary efforts are not combined with corresponding efforts in other fields such as tobacco smoking, exposure to carpeting and animals. Placing of children with postulated allergy occurs independently of the presence of carpets, animals and smoke in the day care situation. 40-50% of the children in day care homes are passive smokers.