Prehranjevalne navade predšolskih otrok v Ljubljani in okolici
Nutritional habits of pre-school children in Ljubljana and its surroundings

slovenian

2009

volume 43, issue 2

Zbornica zdravstvene in babiške nege Slovenije - Zveza strokovnih društev medicinskih sester, babic in zdravstvenih tehnikov Slovenije
(Obvezni izvod spletne publikacije)

Introduction: Balanced food with proper nutrition and energy values during infancy and adolescence is essential for healthy growth and development. Balanced and health-protection food includes the recommended percentages of the daily diet for each food group (dairy, meat, fish, grain, vegetable and fruit). Methods: Included in the study were 129 children (68 male and 61 female) from eleven kindergartens in Ljubljana and its surroundings. Their mean age was 4.2 +/- 1.1 years. The quantity of food intake was averaged on the basis of 3-day-weighted record of the offered and consumed quantities of food. The parents were requested to record also all the food their children consumed at home in a special nutrition diary. Prodi 5 Expert computer programme was used to analyse the collected data on the daily food intake and over 120 recipes which enabled an insight into the ingested food according to food groups (cereal and pasta, milk and diary products, meat and meat substitutes, fruit and vegetables). The findings were compared against the intake recommendations for children between 4 and 7 years of age. Results: Thedaily average quantities of consumed food per child were as followsČ 132.16 kg of grain and pasta, 389.81 g of milk and diary products, 87.5 g of meat and substitutes, 212.73 g of fruit, 156.14 g of vegetables and 4.95 g of salt. Discussion and conclusions: The findings show that the preschool children in Ljubljana and its surroundings consume the reconunended quantitiesof milk and milk products, meat and fruit. The intake of vegetables,however, is extremely low, amounting to only 52% of D-A-CH reference values for the vegetable group while the intake of salt was too high.

13.11.2013