Nutritional behaviour of 3- to 6-year-old children of different ethnic groups – result of a study in two day nurseries in Berlin

A.-M. Bau, R. Matteucci Gothe, T. Borde, Berlin

In March 2002, a study of the nutritional behaviour of 3- to-6-year-old children was conducted in two day nurseries in Berlin-Wedding, a social focal point. Parents or mothers, resp., of a total of 199 children had received especially designed standardized questionnaires. 138 of the questionnaires disseminated were qualified for evaluation.

Independent of their nationality, the children were grouped according to their ethnics by their mothers‘ native language. Accordingly, data were evaluated in groups of children with mothers whose native language was German , Turkish (n = 77), B-S-C-R (languages of the former Yugoslavia, n = 17), and of other native languages (n = 20).

The nutritional behaviour of the children was then compared with the dietary recommendations by the research institute for child nutrition in Dortmund. It became obvious that the mean consumption frequencies of food correspond to the German recommendations; but there are partly pronounced differences depending on the children’s ethnics. 

- The proportion of ‘unfavourable‘ food items such as fast food (e. g. fried potatoes), biscuits, sweets and lemonades is clearly higher in children of the non-German groups.
- The proportion of food of high nutrient density such as vegetables, fruit, meat, pasta, rice, potatoes and dairy products is very favourable in Turkish and German children.
- Different to children from the former Yugoslavia and children of other ethnic origin, Turkish and German children have very similar consumption patterns.

The present study has shown that the dietary patterns of children of different ethnic origin are not influenced by their mothers‘ knowledge of the German language and the length of time they have been living in Germany.

It has been for the first time that data of the nutritional behaviour of children as a function of their ethnics were obtained in Germany. The relatively small and different numbers of children of the ethnic groups underline the pilot nature of the study. EU06/03

Keywords: Migrants / children / nutritional behaviour /Berlin

Sie finden den Artikel in deutscher Sprache in Ernährungs-Umschau 06/03 ab Seite214.