Calorie intake by 3 to 5 years old children in Varanasi district, India

The present study was carried out in order to find out effect of age, caste and income on the calorie intake in 3 to 5 years old children of Varanasi district. Three hundred children aged 3 to 5 years were purposely selected from the surrounding villages of a MCH sub-centre. The energy intake was assessed by “24 hours food recall method”. The means energy consumptions were assessed 975.50 and 1208.68 Kcals, respectively for the children aged 3 and 4to 5 years. In comparison to recommended norms (ICMR, 2003), there was deficiency of 21.33 to 28.52 per cent energy in these children. The calorie intake was found significantly related with caste structure and income of the family. Due to non-availability of food products, the children belonging to scheduled castes received significantly lesser amount of energy than the general caste children. It was further established that the calorie intake in pre-school children was positively related with economic soundness. Calorie intake by 3 to 5 years old children in Varanasi district, India ANITA SINGH Asian Journal of Home Science, (December, 2010) Vol. 5 No. 2 : 310-313 Correspondence to: ANITA SINGH Department of Food and Nutrition, Faculty of Home Science, Sri Agrasen Kanya Autonomous P.G. College, VARANASI (U.P.) INDIA It has been reported by various authors that slow rate of physical and mental development in children is due to energy and other nutrients. Nutritional constraint is mostly responsible for prevalence of malnutrition in preschool children of economically weaker section, resulting high fatality rate. Generally these pre-school children consume 30 per cent lesser energy than the recommended norms (Gopalan, 1989; Gopalan and Narasinga Rao, 1971 and Narasinga Rao et al., 1983). The energy is needed to a person for essential basal metabolism and accomplishment of physical activities. Physical activities include both types of non-professional activities, like sitting, standing, dressing, undressing and walking etc. and professional activities related to economic requirements. Some additional energy is also required for compensation of faecal loss (Park, 2005). Indian Council of Medical Research (2003) has recommended 1240 Kcal and 1690 Kcals energy for the children aged 3 and 4to 5 years, respectively. Present political, socio-economic disparity and unfavourable balance between food production and population are absolutely responsible for unequitable food intake resulting calorie deficiency in various sectors of the community in general and pre-school children in particular (Khader, 1999; Bhardwaj et al., 1987; Kakkar et al., 1987). The present study was formulated in order to find out effect of age, caste and per capita income with energy intake of the pre-school children.