Preschool children's consumption of drinks: implications for dental health

Objective To examine drinking patterns in pre-school children and their rel ationship to percentage of energy intake from non-milk extrinsic sugars. De sign Secondary analysis of data from the national diet and nutrition survey (NDNS) relating to the dietary intakes of a representative sample of pre-s chool children in the UK. Subjects 1,675 children aged 1.5 to 3.5 years sur veyed between July 1992 and June 1993. Outcome measures Proportion of consu mers, average daily Frequency of consumption and estimated seven day volume of consumption of different drinks. Percentage of average daily energy int ake obtained from non-milk extrinsic sugars (NMES). Results Soft drinks wer e the most commonly consumed drinks followed by whole milk and diet or low sugar varieties of soft drinks. Half the sample were estimated to consume m ore than 1.5 litres of soft drinks: and whole milk and over a litre of diet or low-sugar soft drinks per seven days. Fifty-six per cent of the childre n consumed soft drinks more than once a day. The youngest children (1.5-2.5 years) were more likely to consume whole milk and less likely to consume d iet, soft drinks and skimmed milk than other age groups. Children from manu al home backgrounds consumed more tea and coffee and were less likely to co nsume fruit juice than those from non-manual backgrounds. Drinks contribute d 23% to total energy intake and 39% of NMES intake. Consumption of soft dr inks, fruit juice and whole and semi-skimmed mirk accounted for 59% of vari ance in percentage of energy from NMES. Conclusions A large proportion of p re-school children consume considerable quantifies of soft drinks which hav e little or no nutritional value and are high in cariogenic non-milk extrin sic sugars. This has implications for children's dental and general health. Recommendations for drinks consumption should be included in food policy g uidelines for pre-school children.