Eating habits: what foods do children between 12 and 36 months consume?
Catarina Saraiva Marinho, Cândida Koch, Margarida Reis Santos
PMID 37820136WHAT IT FOUND
Most toddlers ate five or six meals daily, but many consumed too little vegetables, legumes, fat and water, and too much dairy or meat, fish and eggs.
This gives nurses a concrete eating pattern to address in child health consultations.
Key findings
01Most toddlers ate five or six meals daily: 42.5% ate five meals and 42.8% ate six meals.
02Many toddlers consumed below recommended amounts of vegetables (94.4%), legumes (84.4%), fat (91.6%) and water (89.3%).
03Dairy was above recommended in 67.1% of children and meat, fish or eggs in 80.0%, while fruit was recommended in 78.1%.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Information came from a parent self-report questionnaire, so reported eating habits may reflect socially preferable answers rather than actual intake. The study collected only cooked vegetable consumption and did not specify soup, which is common in this age group. The design was cross-sectional and not longitudinal, so it cannot show future consequences of less adequate eating habits. The sample was non-probabilistic and drawn from day care centers in one district, so it may not represent other Portuguese toddlers. Only 808 of 2,036 questionnaires delivered were included, corresponding to 40%.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that unhealthy food consumption caused overweight or obesity in these toddlers. The study found no statistically significant associations between unhealthy food consumption and BMI percentile, and it only described eating habits at one time.