The rapid growth which occurs in foetal life and during infancy is followed by a long period of gradual growth during childhood. This is the time when the child starts exploring his environment and gets exposed to the school situation. However, due to poor eating habits, children, particularly pre-schoolers, are more easily prone to deficiency like protein energy malnutrition, anaemia and vitamin A deficiency. A proper well-balanced diet, good eating habits, a good school lunch programme combined with some amount of nutrition awareness goes a long way in improving their nutritional status.
Nutritional Requirements
Energy. In the absence of data on energy intake of normally growing healthy Indian children, the ICMR Nutrition Advisory Committee (1990) has recommended the adoption of energy allowances given by FAO/WHO with necessary adjustments for body weight of healthy well nourished Indian children who had no dietary constraints. It was observed that the actual measured energy intake of such children corresponded closely to the recommended intakes. Based on the evidence of beneficial effects of energy supplementation on the growth of under-nourished and under-weight children. The ICMR Committee suggested that energy should be provided on the basis of ideal weight for age. Therefore, for malnourished children, the recommended intakes for the actual age should be used and no adjustments for actual body weights should be made.
Proteins. The increase in the muscle mass that must accompany bone growth requires positive nitrogen balance that is met by protein intake of 1.5 to 2 g/kg body weight. In these computations,. the maintenance and requirements of children as given by FAO/WHO/UNO Expert consultation and the nitrogen content of the body weight increment of normally growing children have been used. To obtain physiological requirements, the factorial value is increased by 50% and an allowance of 25% has been added to arrive at the safe level of intake. The body weight standards of well-to-do Indian children have been used to arrive at the total daily allowance of proteins for children at different ages. Based on these, the recommended daily allowances of proteins for children as suggested by the Nutrition Advisory Committee of ICMR, 1990.
Fat. A higer fat intake has been recommended for children in view of the high energy density and thus reduced bulk of the diet. In case of young children, the linolic acid requirement has been placed at 3% of energy (3 eh%) which can be satisfied even by an intake of 10 g of visible fat per day. It is, however, suggested that an amount of 25 g of visible fat per day must be taken by them to provide sufficient energy density and palatibility of the diet. Fat energy including invisible fat for children should be 25 per cent of total energy and essential fatty acid energy is 5-6 per cent.
Minerals. Calcium requirement of children is calculated on the basis of the amount of calcium accretion in the body. The deposition is not uniform throughout growing period, but would be relatively greater during early childhood period of growth. Since, all dietary calcium is not absorbed. 400 mg/day is prescribed though the actual requirement may be less. During growth for an increase in each kilogram in body weight 30 mg of iron is required and since the increase in body weight during childhood is 2 kg/year on an average, the daily requirement of iron for growth will be 0.2 mg. The physiological requirement can very markedly for 1-2 years from 0.2-0.5 mg/kg of body weight/day. Thus, the children would require a total of 29 ^g/kg/day. Taking into account the body weights and further, an absorption figure of 3% of the daily dietary iron requirements can be computed.
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