The Assessment of Dietary Quality in Toddler of 12-36 Months

12~36개월 유아의 식사 질 평가

This research was conducted to evaluate the general dietary quality(the balance and diversity of food intake, nutrient intake and adequacy) of 12 to 36-month-old toddler, through examining their actual food intake. It was conducted for 664(male-357, female-307) healthy toddler who were outpatients from Mar. to Aug., 1999 at university hospitals and private hospitals in Seoul and kyunggi province. The anthropometric parameters were measured. The 24-hr recall method were utilized to analyze the nutrient intake by months, based on the classification of The Korea Child Gorwth Standard. As for the subjects of this research, we found that the younger the age, the more frequent the pattern of intake of only 3 kinds of food groups. The results are that 1) the group with 1 point of the DDS(Dietary Diversity Score) mostly took only foods from the milk group, 2) the group with 2 points only took foods from the grain and milk group, 3) the group with 3 points did not take foods from the fruit and vegetable group, and 4) the group with 4 points took just about all kinds of food groups except for the vegetable group. This means that most of them were not taking various kinds of food even after the age of 12 months, and that they took more than twice the recommended amount of foods from the milk group until the age of 20 months. Thus, one could find a tendency of dependance on the milk group for food intake. Food intake for the vegetable group was severely under the recommended allowance, regardless of the age. The intake of iron was less than two thirds of the recommended allowance, except for the group of 12 to 14-month-olds who had been fed with infant formula. The Nutrient Adequacy Ratio(NAR) of major nutrients(protein, calcium, phosphorous, iron, vitamin A, vitamin B$_1$, vitamin B$_2$, niacin, vitamin C) and the Mean Adequacy Ratio(MAR, shows the general quality of dietary intake) was 0.86$\pm$0.12, but the NAR of iron was 0.62$\pm$0.27, which was extremely low compared to those of other nutrients. Therefore, concerning the subjects of this research, the MAR value alone does not provide enough ground to conclude that the subjects dietary quality is satisfactory. (Korean J Nutrition 34(2) : 176-187, 2001)