Estimation of the frequency of meals consumed by children in early school age (living in Wloclawek)

• Published in: Journal of education, health and sport Vol. 7; no. 7; pp. 545 - 556
• Main Authors: Małgorzata Pujanek, Monika Anna Ameryk, Jarosław Koza, Ewa Szymelfejnik, Katarzyna Jankowska, Maciej Świątkowski
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kazimierz Wielki University 01.07.2017
• Subjects: children; meal frequency; nutrition
• ISSN: 2391-8306
• DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.836141

Introduction: Adequate nutrition in children from youngest age will result in a proper physical and psychological growth. Unregular meals can cause many metabolic diseases. The important role in planning a menu plays frequency of the meals, their regularity and intervals between them. Aim: Evaluation of meal frequency among children aged 6-9 from primary schools in Włocławek. Materials and methods: The study group includes 314 children aged 6-9 randomly selected primary schools in Włocławek. The analysis was a part of a huge regional program of prevention of malnutrition, overweight and obesity by improving nutrition among children aged 6-9. The nutrition questionnaire was fullfiled by parents. The results were analyzed with computer program named Statistica 10. Results: The study showed that children from the study group made nutrition mistakes, such as insufficient numbers of meals during the day (3-4) only 70% of participants had its first meal before the school, not many more took second breakfast to the school and 25% ate junk food between meals. Ninety percent of the children had dinner and super on the regular basis. Conclusions: There is the need to change nutritional habits and make meals more regular, healthy, nutritious and diversified.