Three hundred and fifty children aged from 9 months to 3 years from central, eastern and western regions of Ukraine were involved in the cross-sectional study. Inclusion criteria were: • Age from 9 to 36 months. Exclusion criteria were: • The need to follow a special elimination diet for significant food allergies, metabolic disorders (including hereditary diseases). Main study outcomes • Prevalence 3-Methyladenine research buy of normal, high and low consumption of basic macro- and micronutrients. During the first visit basic child’s data were collected, health status was assessed by a physician and parents were given

a food diary and a food questionnaire for self-completion. The parents were asked to fill in the diary for 3 days (2 regular week days and 1 day – during weekend) and the questionnaire of eating behavior before the second visit. At the second visit (in 8–10 days after the first one) a doctor checked the filled food diary and eating behavior questionnaire (the

presence of a child was not required). At the final, third visit selleck inhibitor (in 4–5 weeks) the parents were informed about the results of the data analysis and were given advice on the nutrition of their child. Special attention was paid to the presence of infectious and allergic diseases on the basis of physical examination and medical history data of a child. Data from the diaries and questionnaires were analyzed with DietPlan 6 software (Forestfield Software Ltd., UK). The software allowed calculating the daily consumption of all major nutrients, taking into account age, sex, physical activity and other characteristics of the child as well as the reference values of caloric and nutrient intake and foods recommended by the Committee of Medical Aspects of Food Policy (1991) and adapted to the standards of Ukraine. The following Neratinib in vitro indicators

were calculated and included into analysis: daily caloric intake, the amount of consumed protein, fat, carbohydrates, macronutrients (calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, chloride and magnesium), essential micronutrients (iron, zinc, iodine, fluorine, copper, selenium, chromium, molybdenum, cobalt and manganese) and vitamins. The social status of children was not taken into account. From 105 children, involved in the laboratory part of the study, blood was taken to determine ferritin, erythrocytes, hemoglobin and hematocrit levels. Standard methods of descriptive, categorical and correlation (nonparametric Spearman, Kendall Tau and Gamma coefficients) analyses were used with the calculation of 95% confidence intervals (CIs) as appropriate. If normally distributed continuous data are presented as average ± standard deviation (SD), if not – as median [minimum–maximum]. The statistical analysis was performed with Statistica 8 software (StatSoft Inc., 2008; USA).