Page 63 - MHF-FeedingMinds-final.indd

54 2.2 Assessing Nutritional Intake

Food groups Fluid
Drinks
Bread, rice, Fruit & veg Milk, Meat, fish, Foods
potato, cheese, eggs, nuts, high in 6
pasta, other yogurt pulses fat &/or 8
starchy food sugar 5
2 6
Sunday 5 53 1 2 7
Monday 2 3 6
Tuesday 6 44 2 2 9
Wednesday 3 4
Thursday 4 62 2 2
Friday 1 1
Saturday – went to a 5 31 5
birthday party
Totals for the week: 3 33
Average for the week
RECOMMENDED : 6 43

4 23

33 27 19 13 19 47
4.7 3.8 2.7
3–5 5 3 1.9 2.7 6.7
At each At each
meal and meal and 2–3 Some 6–8 cups
some snacks some high-fat
snacks foods

Figure 2.2.7 Average for each food group for the week

enough of and providing ideas of ways to increase ●● the accuracy with which the food and drinks
his/her intake of this food group by substituting consumed by a child are entered into the
this food group for another food group he may be software.
having too much of.
Such software can also be used to assess the
Using computer software nutrient contents of menus and individual
recipes.
There are computer software programmes that
calculate the energy and nutrient content of a Nutritional Assessments for
dietary intake. The adequacy of the diet is assessed Epidemiological Data
by comparison with estimated average energy
requirement and RNIs of each nutrient. Several In the past, weighing food over a four-day period
companies sell computer software packages to do was the method used in national dietary surveys of
this. However, the analysis obtained is only as children in the UK (Gregory et al. 1995, 2000) but
accurate as: it was a very expensive way to collect nationally
representative data. The current national
●● the nutrient content of the food database that is nutritional data collection is a rolling programme
in the software – the foods in the database may of dietary assessment and uses a four-day food
not match exactly the food that has been bought diary recorded by the family and is followed up by
or prepared an interview to clarify quantities consumed by the
family member who is in the study.
●● the accuracy of the diet history taken of the
exact quantities that the child has consumed