Energy intake variability in free-living young children

Nielsen, S.B., Montgomery, C., Kelly, L.M., Jackson, D.M. and Reilly, J.J. (2008) Energy intake variability in free-living young children. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 93(11), pp. 971-973.

Abstract

It has been suggested that young children regulate their daily energy intake very closely with highly stable day-to-day total energy intake. This hypothesis was developed on the basis of an experimental study of 15 children aged 26 to 62 months, which reported a within-subject coefficient of variation (CV) in daily energy intake of 10.4%. We tested the hypothesis that free-living energy intakes were highly stable on a day-to-day basis in a sample of free-living young children from Glasgow, Scotland. In 101 children (47 boys) aged 2.6-6.8 years, energy intake was measured using multiple-pass 24-h recalls. Within-subject CV was 19.2%, which was significantly higher than the 10.4% reported by previously Birch and colleagues (p7#60;0.0001). In addition, we identified four other studies on free-living children with within-subject CVs ranging from 16.1-28.7%. This evidence indicates that young children show a wide intra-individual variation in day-to-day regulation of energy intake in a free-living environment.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Kelly, Ms Lynne and Reilly, Prof John
• Authors: Nielsen, S.B., Montgomery, C., Kelly, L.M., Jackson, D.M., and Reilly, J.J.
• Subjects: R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Medicine, Dentistry & Nursing > Clinical Specialities
• Journal Name: Archives of Disease in Childhood
• ISSN: 0003-9888