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What guidance is there on portion size for feeding preschool-aged children (1 to 5 years) in the United Kingdom and Ireland? A systematic grey literature review

Porter, Alice; Kipping, Ruth; Summerbell, Carolyn; Dobrescu, Anca; Johnson, Laura

What guidance is there on portion size for feeding preschool-aged children (1 to 5 years) in the United Kingdom and Ireland? A systematic grey literature review Thumbnail


Authors

Alice Porter

Ruth Kipping

Anca Dobrescu

Laura Johnson



Abstract

Large portion sizes of food can lead to excessive energy intake and weight gain in young children. Although portion size guidance is available, parents are often unaware it exists. Our systematic grey literature review aimed to identify the portion size guidance resources in the United Kingdom and Ireland, aimed at users (e.g., parents and childcare providers) responsible for feeding preschool‐aged children. We describe who the resources are aimed at, how they are informed and whether the recommended portion sizes are consistent across resources. Resources were identified via advanced Google searches, searching reference lists and contacting experts. Resources that provided quantifiable portion size information (e.g., grammes) were included. Portion sizes (g) were extracted and energy equivalents (kcal) were calculated. Portion sizes were analysed by food group and by eating occasion. Twenty‐two resources were identified. Median portion sizes were consistent across resources for fruit (40 g [IQR = 40–50]) and vegetables (40 g [IQR = 30–40]). Variability was observed in portion size and/or energy content for dairy (60 g [IQR = 25–93]), protein (72 kcal [IQR = 44–106]) and starchy (41 g/71 kcal [IQR = 25–80/56–106]) food groups. The range in size of an average eating occasion was large (90–292 g). This review identifies resources that could help caregivers to choose appropriate portion sizes for preschool‐aged children but also highlights how future resources could be improved.

Citation

Porter, A., Kipping, R., Summerbell, C., Dobrescu, A., & Johnson, L. (2020). What guidance is there on portion size for feeding preschool-aged children (1 to 5 years) in the United Kingdom and Ireland? A systematic grey literature review. Obesity Reviews, 21(7), Article e13021. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.13021

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Mar 4, 2020
Online Publication Date Mar 26, 2020
Publication Date Jul 31, 2020
Deposit Date Apr 6, 2020
Publicly Available Date Apr 7, 2020
Journal Obesity Reviews
Print ISSN 1467-7881
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 21
Issue 7
Article Number e13021
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.13021

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Published Journal Article (Advance online version) (1.2 Mb)
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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Advance online version © 2020 The Authors. Obesity Reviews published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of World Obesity Federation. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.





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