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Nutrition Intake of Children at the Caribou Child Care Centre

University of British Columbia. Campus and Community Planning

Our case study specifically looked at improving the nutritional quality of the snacks served at the Caribou Child Care Center following the steps of the NCP. We used a combination of the results from the nutrition questionnaire prepared by FNH 370 students and direct observations to do our dietary and ecological assessment. Although we noted that fruits were provided on a daily basis, we found that most of the common snacks that they served including pasta, pizza, rice and cereal were disproportionately high in carbohydrates compared to proteins and fats. According to the AMDR values for the two age groups at this child care center, about one-third and one-fifth of their daily calories should come from fats and proteins respectively. In order to ensure that more sources of fats and proteins are included, we proposed the practice of weekly meal planning. Through our ecological assessment, we recognized that the staff at this child care center had varying levels of nutrition education and value convenience so we designed a simple dietary guide with suggestions on how to increase the protein and fat content in snacks that they commonly serve as well as new snack ideas. To monitor the progress of implementing weekly meal plans with the use of our dietary guide, we would initially compile three day food records monthly for the initial six months. To assess the overall impact of the intervention plan, a food frequency questionnaire with less than 50 items will be administered every four months and validated with either a 24-hour recall or a three day food record. While we acknowledge that there were many limitations to our nutrition assessment including not obtaining information on the meals consumed outside of the child care center, inter-individual variability of intake and not knowing why weekly meal planning is not implemented at this center, we believe that increased mindfulness of macronutrient distributions when planning snacks will be a positive step towards improving the nutritional quality of snacks served. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”

Text

UBC Social Ecological Economic Development Studies (SEEDS) Student Report; University of British Columbia. FNH 370

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0343559

Land and Food Systems, Faculty of

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/