Methodology for longitudinal assessment of nutrient intake and dietary habits in early childhood in a transnational multicenter study.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe developed methods for repeated longitudinal assessment of feeding habits and nutrient intakes of children in a multicenter trial in different European countries and to assess feasibility.

Patients And Methods: Nutrient intake and dietary habits of formula-fed and breast-fed infants were assessed in 5 European countries (Belgium, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain). Prospective age-adapted 3-day weighed food records were used from birth to 2 years of age (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 18, and 24 months).

Protein intake in the first year of life: a risk factor for later obesity? The E.U. childhood obesity project.

Effective strategies for primary prevention are urgently needed to combat the rapidly increasing prevalence of childhood obesity. Evidence accumulates that early nutrition programmes later obesity risk. Breast feeding reduces the odds ratio for obesity at school age, adjusted for biological and sociodemographic confounding variables, by some 20-25%.

Height and weight of German primary school children in the Family Intervention Trial (FIT) Erlangen.

Many anthropometric reference data for children are based on studies conducted up to 40 years ago. We assessed height and weight distribution of a population of German primary school children and compared the results with national and international reference data. In February 1998 weight and height were measured in 427 first grade school children (195 boys, 232 girls) aged 6 to 7 years who participated in the family intervention trial Erlangen.