Objectives Parasitic diseases represent a public health concern in Romania, mainly in colectivities of children. Our aim was to detect the incidence of intestinal parasitic infections in kindergartens in Constanta county, over a period of two years.

Methods We have investigated 564 children aged between 1–6 years from 7 kindergartens in Constanta county. The microscopic examination of fresh faeces stained in iodine solution was the method used for the study (the standard diagnosis method in Romania).

Results Out of 564 children, 15.45% were diagnosed with digestive parasitic infections. Infections were produced by 8 species of parasites: Giardia lamblia (69.9%), Blastocystis hominis (18%), Entamoeba coli (5.95%), Enterobius vermicularis (1.74%), Ascaris lumbricoides (1.45%), Hymenolepis nana (1.45%), Trichuris trichiura (1.01%) and Strongyloides stercoralis (0.29%). In our group, 82% were infected with only one species of parasites. Among protozoa, Giardia was the most frequent identified (69.9%) from all cases.

Conclusions 15.45% of children diagnosed with intestinal parasitic diseases. The incidence of giardiasis was 10.80%, which confirms that giardiasis is the digestive parasitic disease with the highest prevalence. There was no significant difference according to the gender of the children. The most affected age group was represented by children of 3–4 years. Obligatory periodic investigations of children from collectives should be routinely performed for diagnosing parasitic infections.