The younger children start school, the more likely they are to suffer from mental illness later in life

The youngest children in a class are under the most pressure and may be at increased risk of developing mental illness, a British study suggests. Some 10,000 children between the age of five and 15 were studied and the youngest children in each class grouping were more likely to suffer from moderate amounts of stress at school.

Robert Goodman and his team in the department of child and adolescent psychiatry at King's College London pointed out that similar studies have revealed that the youngest members in the school class tend to have the lowest levels of entry to third level.

This study reopens an old debate about the practice of allowing children to start school at the age of four in Ireland and Britain. Most European countries have a compulsory school starting age of six, but Irish and British children usually start at the age of five and younger.

Delegates at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers' conference in Britain recently called for a statutory change in the lower age limit, to six years. The association said that children, especially boys, could become disruptive if forced to start maths and English too young.

It's tempting for parents to enrol children in primary school at four - it constitutes free childcare, if nothing else. But regimented schooling has been found to knock the confidence of very young learners. It also robs them of a year of free play, which is so important for early learning.

Studies have found that children who stand to lose the most from premature formal schooling are boys and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Last month's Irish Times report on the success of transition year also points to the importance of maturity in academic achievement.

Transition-year subject matter helps students to become confident, self-directed learners, but there's no doubt that the mere fact of being a year older when taking the Leaving Cert has a positive effect on results.

It's not enough to chastise parents for packing their four-year-olds off for a bit of State-sponsored baby-sitting. There is little in the way of preschool education provision in this country - that which does exist is either expensive or targeted at certain groups.

Preschool education, which uses techniques suited to small children such as learning through play, small class sizes and having more than one adult present, is universally available in many developed nations. In the Government's recent white paper on early childhood education it was noted that Ireland's entry into this arena has been comparatively late. The EU Commission Network commented that in most countries pre-primary schooling or kindergarten provision for children aged three to six years is already high, but Ireland is the exception.

In Ireland's case, participation in formal education at the ages of four and five compares very well with the rates in other member states - but many researchers argue that formal education is simply not appropriate for children under six.

Until free preschool education is made universally available in Ireland, many parents have little choice but to send their four- and five-year-olds to primary school. For those who can afford to keep them at home, or in paid preschool, the rewards may be worth the expense.

Trendsetting: What's new in the world of parenting

If the child in your home is in charge of the fish tank, invest in a pair of small rubber gloves. The cleaning can lead to bacterial skin infection, especially if cleaners have open cuts or depressed immune systems.

Junior snorers may be suffering at school, according to a report of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Habitual snoring is associated with poor academic performance in primary-school children, European researchers report. This could be attributed to broken sleep patterns, leading to sleep deprivation. Parents whose children snore regularly should see their paediatrician or ear, nose and throat consultant - sometimes it can be solved by removing or reducing the adenoids.

Children born by Caesarean section may have an increased risk of food allergies, according to a report in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Caesarean delivery can delay the growth of normal intestinal flora, and children with food- allergic mothers may be more likely to inherit those allergies if born by C-section. For children without allergic mothers, the association between Caesarean section and food allergy is insignificant.