Kids and Food
HE-1
CHILDREN’S NUTRITIONAL STATUS: ARE THE KIDS ALL RIGHT?
William Evers, Ph.D., Extension Specialist, Food and Nutrition
If you have young children, you may wonder at times if they are getting the right amount of food for their needs. You should wonder. You are the main provider for a child’s food intake, and you can greatly influence his or her nutritional status.
What is nutritional status?
In a recent review in the World Review of Nutrition and Dietetics, Paul Fieldhouse described the ways mothers and fathers can view nutrition as it relates to children. Fieldhouse states that satisfactory nutritional status can be defined as:
•	a state of well-being so that further improvement in diet has no effect.
•	a condition that allows every child to attain the best possible performance from his or her genetic endowment.
•	normal growth, development, and the absence of disease.
Since the third definition is easiest to measure, it can best serve as a guideline to parents. But what is “normal” for your child? This publication will give you some background information and some guidelines about the nutritional status of your child.
Quick Quiz
As a parent of a child between the ages of 2 and 10, how would you answer the following:
1.	Is my child the right weight for his or her age and height?
2.	How many servings of fruits, vegetables and dairy products does my child get over a 2-week period?
3.	To use up 500 calories, how many minutes would my child have to walk, crawl, swim, bicycle?
4.	Is my child “hyperactive”? What does that mean? How do I know?
5.	Does my child need a vitamin and/or mineral supplement? If yes, why? If no, why not?
Knowing the answers to these questions can help you assess your child’s nutritional status. Each of us is concerned about our health or the health of those close to us. Newspapers, radio and TV are filled with advice about the foods we eat, the air we breathe and the lifestyles we develop. So we do wonder if the “kids are all right,” if they eat well, or if they exercise enough. However, we must address these concerns in as rational a manner as possible. By basing our judgments on the best scientific evidence available, we can draw some conclusions as to whether the nutritional status of our children is fine or whether there is need for concern.
A nutrient is a substance that the body must have to function properly. All nutrients are found n our food supply. Nutrients can be proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals or water. When we look at nutritional status, we are asking if a person has adequate amounts of nutrients. We want the body to function at its best, not just to get by. But, the nutrients we need are not provided just by eating the right foods. Other factors such as exercise, stress, even weather can influence how our body is able to use the nutrients.
Assessing nutritional status
As a science, nutrition is relatively young. Much is still unknown about how foods are utilized by the body and about the long-term effects of food patterns. Various methods are used to study nutrients and how our bodies use them. To decide if a group (young children, for instance) has a problem with its nutritional status, research is conducted on a large number of people from this group. There are three main ways scientists assess the nutritional status of people: dietary studies, clinical studies, and laboratory investigations. Results from each of these methods can be used to decide if a particular subgroup of the population is having a problem with nutritional status.
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