الفهرس 
AcknowledgementOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
A healthy child has the best chance for growing into a healthy adult. The food that a child eats from his early life has a great deal to do with his future health. The aim of this study is to assess the dietary intake of children in relation to their requirements. A sample of 1155 children aged 4 - 17 years of both sexes was choosen from day care centers and schools to be a subject of this study (2 day oare oenters, 6 schools from urban area and 2 day care centers, 4 schools from rural area). The total number of boys was 590 and total number of girls was 565. The collected data oovered sooioeconomic status and anthropometrio measurements of the whole sample. A subsample representing 21 of the total sample was subject to studying the dietary intake for ohildren in both urban and rural area. The analysis of the oolleoted data revealed the following results: 1. Total caloric intake was insufficient to meet the RDAs in almost children either in urban or rural area. Although the rural children seemed to get lower caloric intake than urban children, yet at age 7 - 9 years, rural children get calories more than urban children. This indicates the importance of school lunch meal. 2. Total protein’ intake exceeds the RDAs in all children, but animal protein is insufficient for the RDAs. ). The major source of energy was from carbohydrate followed by fat and protein. 4. Iron exceeds the RDAs at all ages except at adolesence period especially in girls. 5~ Calcium and niacin intake were insufficient to meet RDAs while vitamin ”An and ascorbic acid were suff icient. 6. Thiamin and riboflavin were adequate in relation to the total calories. .7. Children with low socioeconomic level were found to eat low animal protein and they do not get regular breakfast. 8. Physical growth measurements of urban children were higher than those of rural children at the same age. This may be due to the bad environmental sanitation, low socioeconomic level and insufficient dietary intake. 9. Puber~y. started ~arlier in girls than boys. 10. Consanguineous marriage in the present study have no significant effect on the an~trio characteristic of children..