Nutrition of school children at the Ages of 6-12 A review

SUMMARY The rate of growth in school children is very slow compared to younger children. On the average, they gain 2.3 kg in weight and grow 6.25 cm. in height annually. In this review we consider the growth charts which are widely used for monitoring the growth rate of children. One of the most important factors in growing children is to meet their nutritional needs. The caloric demands for children aged six to twelve range from 1.650 kcal. to 3700 kcal. Per day, and protein demands are estimated to be 34 grams/day (see table-1 for other nutritional needs). In this review, we also recommend the variety and portion sige as the key elements in the diets of elementary school children. The factors that affect nutritional status of children have also been discussed. In the last section of this review, some important primary nutritional disease which are preventable by proper nutritional care have been presented.