title: Dietary patterns of New Zealand European preschool children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To record and describe the dietary patterns of a large group of New Zealand (NZ) European preschool children and to compare these with NZ Ministry of Health (MOH) food and nutrition guidelines.
  
  
  METHODS
  Mothers were interviewed when children enrolled in the Auckland Birthweight Collaborative (ABC) study were seen at 3.5 years of age. Approximately half of the children in the study were born small for gestational age (SGA =10th percentile) and the remaining were born appropriate for gestational age (AGA >10th percentile). Food frequency information was collected on 549 New Zealand European children. The analysis utilised weighting to allow for the disproportionate sampling of children born SGA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compared with nutritional guidelines, 27% and 54% of preschool children did not eat the recommended two or more servings of fruit per day or two or more servings of vegetables per day, respectively; 93% of children did not eat breads and cereals the recommended four or more times a day.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A notable proportion of children were not eating fruit and vegetables at levels recommended by the MOH. Preschool children's food frequency patterns were, however, similar to patterns reported for school-aged children in the National Children's Nutrition Survey.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, University of Auckland, Auckland.
authors.forename: Reremoana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Theodore
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.forename: Clare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wall
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Becroft
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Robinson
authors.forename: Phillipa
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pryor
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wild
authors.forename: Ed
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Mitchell
mesh_terms: D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004032:Diet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004034:Diet Surveys; D006801:Humans; D009520:New Zealand; D018673:Nutrition Policy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires