Estimation of energy and macronutrient intake at home and in the kindergarten programs in preschool children.
OBJECTIVE
To estimate the energy and macronutrient intake at home and at all-day in the kindergarten programs in children aged 2 to 6 and to investigate differences in consumption and intake between children at public and private kindergartens.


METHODS
This was a cross-sectional study of 362 preschool children from Caxias do Sul, Brazil. Nutritional status was assessed in terms of weight to height ratios. Foods consumed in the kindergarten were evaluated by weighing the actual foods eaten by the children and home intakes were calculated from a food diary kept by parents or guardians. Statistical analyses were performed using the Mann-Whitney U test (p < 0.05).


RESULTS
It was found that 28 children (7.7%) were overweight, 92 (25.4%) were at risk of becoming overweight and seven (1.9%) were classified as having wasting. Analysis of 24-hour nutritional intake demonstrated that 51.3% of the energy, 60.3% of the lipids and 51.6% of the proteins consumed by children were eaten at home, despite the children spending the whole day in the kindergarten programs. Preschool children at kindergartens ate greater quantities of energy (p = 0.001), carbohydrates (p < 0.001), and lipids (p = 0.04) than did children at public kindergartens, but their total daily intakes were similar, irrespective of which type of kindergarten program children attended.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings suggest that these children eat proportionally more energy, proteins and lipids in their extra meals at home than they do in their daytime meals in the kindergarten programs. Despite the differences in intake between public and private kindergarten, daily intakes were similar.
Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde, Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre (UFCSPA), Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil.
Juliana Rombaldi
JR
Bernardi
Carla De
CD
Cezaro
Regina Mara
RM
Fisberg
Mauro
M
Fisberg
Márcia Regina
MR
Vitolo
D002648:Child; D002656:Child Day Care Centers / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004034:Diet Surveys; D002149:Energy Intake; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D005522:Food Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009752:Nutritional Status; D017149:Private Sector / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D017150:Public Sector / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric