LONDON (Reuters) - Children from large families and those who attend nursery, or day care, from an early age may be protected from allergies later in life. A study published in The Lancet medical journal on Friday showed that babies who were cared for in a nursery when they were less than a year old had fewer allergies when they were older than children who started day care later. "Early respiratory infections in children could boost an immune response that could possibly protect children from allergies later in life," Dr Joachim Heinrich said in a telephone interview. The epidemiologist at the GSF Research Centre for the Environment and Health in Neuherberg, Germany, and his colleagues examined 620 children, aged five to 14, from small families in three towns in Germany and 1,630 youngsters from large families. The researchers found fewer cases of hay fever, asthma and eczema in children from smaller families who went to nursery early. "We could not find this association in larger families," Heinrich said. The researchers think children from larger families pick up infections from their siblings when they are young, so the age at which they start nursery is not as crucial for the development of an immune response to allergies.