Nutrition and Health Status of Day-Care Center Children

영유아 보육시설 어린이들의 영양, 건강상태

Although it is rapidly increasing the number of day-care centers in Korea, the quality of food and nutrition services is not improved sufficiently. The purpose of this study was to investigate the nutrition and health status of children in day-care center. Menus for lunch of 253 centers were collected and the content of nutrients was analyzed. Nutrient intakes from lunch and snacks of 90 children were investigated using weighing method and those from breakfast and dinner by 24-hour recall method surrogated from their mothers. Anthropometric indices of height, weight, skinfold thickness, the ratio of fat were measured. The lunch menus for children contained $437.0{\pm}138.9\;Kcal$, $17.6{\pm}6.7gr$ protein, $153.9{\pm}87.7mg\;Ca$, $3.63{\pm}1.6mg\;Fe$, $164.5{\pm}158.2RE\;Vit\;A$. and $4.46{\pm}3.04mg\;Vit\;B_1$. Energy, Ca and Fe supplied were below one third of RDAs. Mean daily calorie intake of children aged 3 years was $1303.0{\pm}474.0Kcal/day$, $1322.3{\pm}442.4Kcal$ in aged four, $1307.0{\pm}545.9Kcal$ in aged five and $1497.1{\pm}93.5kcal$ in six year of age. Intake of iron, vitamin A and vitamin $B_1$ were below RDAs.