Composição das lancheiras de alunos matriculados em uma escola particular de Governador Valadares - MG

Abstract

School feeding in private schools is often the responsibility of parents or guardians, who should ensure that the child eating nutritionally quality for meet their needs. Most of the time, children's lunch boxes are made up of cereals, cakes, stuffed cookies and processed juices, and these lunch boxes generally do not have an adequate composition. Given this context, the objective of this study was to evaluate the composition and nutritional quality of lunchboxes of students enrolled in a private school in the city of Governador Valadares, MG. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 14 students aged 53 to 71 months of both sexes. Data were collected through photographs and annotations of lunch boxes on 3 non-consecutive days, as well as application of the Food Frequency Questionnaire referring to the child's snack taken to school last semester completed by the child's parents, who also answered a questionnaire about economic level of the family and child health. The occurrence of nutritional deviations was detected in 50% of the children evaluated. It was found that most (92.9%) take the snack from home, being partially prepared at home and partially bought ready also more often (78.6%). Only 6 (15.0%) foods had a frequency of median consumption equal to or greater than once a week as a school snack, and only 2 (5.0%) in natura. The cereal plus juice combination was the most present in the lunch boxes (43.2%). The preschoolers' lunchboxes were not of adequate quality, with many foods considered to be markers of unhealthy eating.