A Food and Nutrient Intake Study of the Weaning Children in Rural Korea

농촌 이유기(離乳期) 어린이의 영양섭취조사

Ninety-three weaning children, 8-36 Mo. old wererandomly selected from rural areas of South Korea. Food and nutrient intake level were measured by the weighing-interview method for two consecutive days in December 1976. Their weaning pattern, dietary pattern, food and nutrient intake level were analyzed. A brief summary of 4he finding follows; 1) 80% of the rural children completed the weaning by the age of 24 months. 2) 44% of 8-12 month olds were living only on breast mil while the rest of the age group received regularly a supplementary food. 3) Over half of the 8-36 Mo old children investigated were receiving the same dietary pattern, arbitrarily called 'Diet K'. Diet K consists of rice-Kimchi-seasoning-oil which is the basic components of an average Korean adult diet. This very composition of the diet K and no other variety of food included inevitably result in low intake of vitamin A, iron, calcium and riboflavin for the children. 4) The weaning children were found to be taking all nutrients except niacin in amount far from sufficient to recommended level. Particularly low were the intakes of good quality protein, iron, vitamin A, riboflavin and vitamin C which met only 15%-37% of the recommended level for 12-36 Mo. olds. 5) It was concluded that majority of the rural children of weaning age in Korea are given the simple diet K and feeding the weaning children only with the basic dietary pattern of adults can not meet the nutritional requirements. This is a part of the study supported by the ROKG/USAID Health Planning Project.