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The purpose of this paper is to examine why the uptake of free milk in a particular nursery class was low, to explore the meanings children attribute to drinks given to them in school and those brought from home, and make suggestions as to what might be done to improve children's intake of free school milk.

This paper is based on a case study of a nursery class attached to a primary school in West London. A total of 24 morning sessions were observed, comprising of 72 snack times. In addition, interviews were carried out with parents and early years' practitioners i.e. teachers and nursery nurses. Children's views were elicited through use of narrative observations and an activity using their drinks' cartons.

This study found that these young children linked drinks brought in from home to having choices whereas drinking school milk was associated with having little or no choice. Unlike school milk, drinks from home were linked to stories of personal identity and family life. The children seemed to exert pressure on their parents to provide them with a drink from home and appeared to be attracted to drinks that included representations of characters from popular culture as well as particular brands.

This research is based on one case study, therefore issues raised may not be generalisable to all nursery settings.

This paper encourages early years' practitioners to look in detail at how they organize snack times and the way that this might contribute to negative perceptions of healthy foods/drinks. It offers practical suggestions around how the uptake of milk could be improved in a nursery setting, emphasizing the need for the active involvement of the children. In addition, the study highlights the importance of informal as well as formal discussions with parents about food and drinks. The study recommends that improvements need to be made to early years' practitioners' initial and subsequent training in this area, given the significant role they play in health promotion.

The value of this paper lies in the way it elicits the active participation of young children in the research as well as the focus on the minutiae of nursery practice and its implications for promoting healthy eating/drinking.

Improvement in dietary intake is seen as a key way to make a positive impact on children's current and future health. Yet food and eating are more complex than purely imbibing one's nutritional requirements. In order to gain a fuller picture of an individual's food and eating patterns, it is also important to consider the social dimension within which food and eating takes place. This paper aim to address this issue.

The paper outlines the development of a tool – “food‐mapping”, which is used to explore two children's current food and eating patterns.

Results show that the food‐mapping tool may offer a useful visual representation of an individual's food and eating patterns. This can help, at a glance, to pin‐point areas to develop, such as high levels of sweet‐eating, as well as highlighting key individuals and organizations in providing food for the child.

The paper outlines two cases, from which generalizations cannot be made. In addition, the food‐mapping tool may be limited in that it provides a snap‐shot in time as food and eating patterns do change. This said, it could be used to track changes over time – something not detailed in this paper.

Food‐mapping may be a useful tool for all professionals involved in making a positive impact on people's diet.

The paper focuses on a new tool and its possible application, which takes into account the social dimension to food and eating as well as what is eaten.

During 1982–84, BLR&DD supported a study of medical information and its use by practitioners. The problem of low usage of information services was investigated by looking at the characteristics of information itself and the consequences of not knowing — the penalties for ignorance. Experts were invited to contribute papers on information and communication problems in specialist areas, such as addiction, drugs, alcoholism and exotic diseases. In June 1984, a conference was organised to enable a larger group to discuss the issues raised and consider implications for information transfer. A recently‐published volume now brings together the ten specialist contributions, an overview of the project and a report of the conference. Consensus and penalties for ignorance in the medical sciences, edited by J Michael Brittain (BL R&D Report 5842) is published by Taylor Graham, at £15 (isbn 0—947568 03 4).