Background. Balanced meals eaten by toddlers at nursery school play an important nutritional role in satisfying a child’s daily demand for energy and nutrients as well in preventing any dietary deficiencies or excesses from occurring. Objective. To evaluate the energy and nutritional value of children’s diets at nursery schools in Lodz, Poland. Materials and methods. Analyses were performed at 30 nursery schools throughout the Lodz city municipality on the basis of 10 day menus and food inventory reports. Results were calculated using the ‘Dieta 5.0’ computer programme according to the database at the Warsaw Institute for Food and Nutrition. These were related to nutritional standards for children aged 1-3 years. Results. On average, dietary calorific values exceeded those of current nutritional recommendations, where protein was found to be 3 times higher than current standards although falling within the range of reference values. Dietary fat intake was found to be rather low, with a high content of saturated fat coupled with low intakes of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Dietary carbohydrates agreed with recommended limits however these were exceeded by the mean sucrose intake. Significant deficiencies were most noted in vitamin D and iodine intake and additionally vitamin E and iron intakes were also low. However, intakes of sodium, phosphorus, magnesium, zinc, vitamin A, B2, B6 and B12 were above the recommended values. Conclusions. The diets surveyed in nursery schools need to be better balanced to comply with current standards and dietary guidelines.
The first study was conducted in 1996 in 10 (i.e. all) nurseries and 11 randomly selected preschools in Szczecin. The study involved 526 children (257 boys and 269 girls) aged 1–4 years, and 865 children from preschools (448 boys and 417 girls) aged 4–7 years. In 2006, the study was repeated in seven nurseries (i.e. all nurseries that existed in Szczecin at the time) and 11 preschools in the city of Szczecin, i.e. the same as in 1996. The study involved 314 children attending nurseries: 169 boys and 145 girls aged 1.5–4 and 887 preschool children (461 boys and 426 girls) aged 4–6 years. Motor development of nursery children was assessed based on the Denver test in two selected areas. The level of motor development in preschool children was assessed on the basis of a modified Wrocław Physical Fitness Test developed by B. Sekita. Comparison of the results helped answer the question whether and what developmental changes took place over a decade. The results indicated that the level of motor development of children in Szczecin, compared with children examined 10 years earlier, showed no significant differences.