title: Energy intake variability in free-living young children.
abstract: It has been suggested that young children regulate their daily energy intake very closely with highly stable day-to-day total energy intake. This hypothesis was developed on the basis of an experimental study of 15 children aged 26 to 62 months, which reported a within-subject coefficient of variation (CV) in daily energy intake of 10.4%. We tested the hypothesis that free-living energy intakes were highly stable on a day-to-day basis in a sample of free-living young children from Glasgow, Scotland. In 101 children (47 boys) aged 2.6-6.8 years, energy intake was measured using multiple-pass 24-h recalls. Within-subject CV was 19.2%, which was significantly higher than the 10.4% reported by previously Birch and colleagues (p<0.0001). In addition, we identified four other studies on free-living children with within-subject CVs ranging from 16.1-28.7%. This evidence indicates that young children show a wide intra-individual variation in day-to-day regulation of energy intake in a free-living environment.
authors.affiliation: University of Glasgow, Section of Human Nutrition, Faculty of Medicine, Glasgow, UK. s.nielsen.1@research.gla.ac.uk
authors.forename: S B
authors.initials: SB
authors.lastname: Nielsen
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Montgomery
authors.forename: L A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Kelly
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Jackson
authors.forename: J J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Reilly
mesh_terms: D015992:Body Mass Index; D002648:Child; D002664:Child Nutritional Physiological Phenomena / Q000502:physiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D015331:Cohort Studies; D015930:Diet Records; D002149:Energy Intake / Q000502:physiology*; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012737:Sex Factors