2008 Volume 2 Issue 4 Pages 167-176
In the present study, we conducted an actual condition survey on the dietary habits of infants and parents as a means of finding dietary guidance measures for infants and parents, and examined such measures based on the results. The following findings were obtained from the questionnaire survey : 1) A total of 100％ of infants and 88％ of mothers ate three meals daily, 2) 5％ of infants ate breakfast alone, 3) approximately 70％ of both infants and mothers regularly drank green tea, 4) 68％ of infants ate sweets or chocolate for snacks, 5) approximately 80％ of both infants and mothers considered nutritional balance when eating, and 6) 17％ of infants got up at 8 a.m. or later. Findings based on breakfast pictures were 1) approximately 30％ of infants ate nutritionally balanced meals, and 2) 20％ of infants did not eat vegetables at breakfast.
A 73％ compatibility was observed between breakfast pictures and the infants’ drawings of breakfast. Regarding the match between the awareness of nutritional balance on the questionnaire and pictures of meals, 50％ of infants who responded that they considered the nutritional balance of meals had balanced meals according to breakfast pictures.
Although the present findings showed that mothers had a high level of awareness (regarding nutritional balance in particular) of meals (breakfast only in the present study), their breakfast consisted mostly of processed food and lacked nutritional balance. Therefore, when developing and initially implementing a dietary guidance program for different age groups, it may be necessary to provide parents with basic information on nutritional and food sciences before implementing the program on infants.
