Over the last decade, growing-up milks have become available commercially in Ireland for children aged 12–36 months to complement a balanced diet and to help reduce the risk of nutrient inadequacies. The aim of this paper is estimate the intake and contribution to the energy and nutrient intakes of growing-up milks in Irish children aged 12–36 months. Analyses were based on data from the National Pre-School Nutrition Survey (2010–2011), a nationally representative survey of food consumption in 1–4 year old Irish children (www.iuna.net). A 4-day weighed food diary was used to collect food intake data and nutrient intakes were estimated using WISP©, which is based on McCance and Widdowson's The Composition of Foods 6 th edition ( 1 ) and the Irish food composition database( Reference Black, Ireland, Møller, Roe, Walton and Flynn 2 ). Growing-up milks were consumed by 20% of children aged 12–36 months (12–24m: 25%; 24–36 m: 14%) with an average daily intakes among consumers of 360 ml for 12–24 month olds and 298 ml for 24–36 month olds. The table below presents the contribution of growing-up milks to mean daily energy and nutrient intakes in consumers only (n=49).
Relative to energy, growing-up milks contributed a greater proportion of the mean daily intakes of dietary fibre, calcium, iron, zinc, riboflavin, vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin D, a lower proportion of protein, saturated fat, sodium, niacin and vitamin B6, and similar proportions of carbohydrate, fat, thiamin, folate and vitamin B12. Growing-up milks make an important contribution to overall dietary balance and serve as a rich source of critical nutrients such as iron and vitamin D for which there is a risk of inadequacy in this age group.
The project was funded by the Irish Government under the Food for Health Research Initiative 2007–2012 and Danone Baby Nutrition.
