The value of medical and social services in the domiciliary care of the mentally subnormal child has been under considerable discussion during recent years. The mentally subnormal child is known to show many of the same traits as the normal child when removed from the type of personal relationship between mother and child, which is normal within the ordinary home. It is generally agreed that hospitalization of the normal child under five should be avoided if possible, but it must be remembered that this attitude is equally important in the case of the mentally abnormal or psychotic child. Indeed such children have great difficulty in coming to terms with their environment, and as a result are even more vulnerable to the breakdown of the mother/child relationship than the normal child. It is important, therefore, to look critically at the reasons given for applying for admission to a hospital for mental subnormality, and this study attempts to analyse the reasons put forward in a sample of patients admitted during the years 1955–59, and to discuss possible methods of improving the existing mechanisms.