Chapter 1 – Nutrient supply of the individual reference values and within the age grades

The World Health Organization (WHO) has published general nutritional rules (http://www.who.int/nutrition/topics/5keys_healthydiet/en/).

The WHO recommends:

babies and young children to breastfeed
eat a variety of different foods
eat plenty of vegetables and fruit
eat moderate amounts of fats and oils
eat little salt and sugars

In addition, the WHO has developed a „Food and nutrition Policy for schools“ (http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/152218/E89501.pdf?ua=1)

These general recommendations have been further developed and concretized in almost all EU countries on a national basis. For example, the German Society for Nutrition (DGE) has taken on this task in Germany.

The DGE has issued recommendations for child day care centers (www.fitkid-aktion.de) and schools (http://www.schuleplusessen.de/) , which are summarized in a brochure quality standard for eating in child day care centers (http://www.fitkid-aktion.de/service/medien.html?eID=dam_frontend_push&docID=1901).

Reference values as a scientific basis

The children are divided into the following age groups in the literature on child nutrition and when drawing up the reference values:

0-0.5 years (breast-fed children or babies who are fed with the bottle)
from 0.5 to 1 year (introduction of the complementary food, this means mixture of breastfeeding and solid food in the form of porridge)
1 to 4 years old toddlers receive family food
4 to 7 years old kindergarten children receive family food

Basically, the diet of small children (0-3 years) does not differ significantly from the diet of children. The same recommendations apply to food quality as for older children. However, small children need less energy than older children.

Additional Information Nr. 1 D-A-C-H reference values for nutrient intake (docx - 74kB)

For more information about the diet of children between the ages of 1 and 3, see this link:

Additional Information Nr 2: Specialties for the nutrition of small children (0-3 years) (docx - 74kB)

Additional Information Nr 3: Other issues of healthy food (docx - 75kB)