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Objective: To estimate the minimum number of days of recorded dietary intake needed to place infants and young children into thirds of a population distribution with an acceptable degree of accuracy. Design: Dietary intake data collected from 5-day weighed food records for 72 infants and young children up to 2 y of age, collected during a cross-sectional study, were analysed to estimate the number of recording days necessary to assess intake of energy and 10 nutrients. Setting: Community study among healthy infants and children. Subjects: Parents attended recruitment sessions in local community areas. In total, 72 subjects were entered into the study and all completed the 5-day dietary assessment period. Interventions: A 5-day weighed record of children's dietary intake was made by the parents or regular carer. Results: Mean within subject standard deviations were smaller than mean between subject standard deviations with respect to energy (778 vs 824 kJ/day), macronutrient subclasses: protein (8 vs 9.4 g/day); fat (9 vs 10 g/day); and carbohydrate (26 vs 29 g/ day) and for specific micronutrients: calcium (163 vs 236 mg/day); phosphorus (143 vs 270 mg/day); magnesium (25 vs 43 mg/ day); iron (2 vs 3 mg/day); zinc (1 vs 1.3 mg/day); ascorbic acid (27 vs 64 mg/day) and retinol equivalents (281 vs 424 mg/day). Estimated number of days of food records necessary to assess intake of energy, protein, fat and carbohydrate with acceptable degree of accuracy were 5,4,4 and 3, respectively. For all the micronutrients included in this analysis 2 days of recording were necessary. Conclusion: Compared with adults and older children, fewer days are needed to classify this age group into thirds of the distribution with an acceptable degree of accuracy according to intake of energy and specific nutrients.

Objectives: To compare the estimated food diary record (ED) method against weighed intake record method (WI) for assessing dietary intake in infants and children aged 6 ± 24 months; additionally, to compare WI with metabolisable energy intake (ME) measured by doubly labelled water (DLW) in infants aged 6 ± 12 months. Design: Cross-over study of 5 day WI vs 5 day ED. Subjects: Seventy-two children aged 6 ± 24 months. Methods: Subjects were randomly assigned to one method during week 1 crossing over to the alternative method in week 2. Data were coded and translated into daily nutrient intakes using COMP-EAT version 5 nutritional analysis software. The analysis compared energy, protein, fat and carbohydrate. Twenty-one infants were dosed with DLW for measurement of total energy expenditure (TEE) and ME. Results: Mean energy intake calculated from WI and ED was 3782 and 3920 kJaday, respectively. There was no signi®cant difference between these values. Using WI as a reference, ED showed a mean bias of 138 kJaday, equivalent to 3.6% of mean energy intake. Limits of agreement ( AE 2 s.d. of the bias) were wide at AE 1385 kJaday. There were no signi®cant differences between methods for any of the nutrient sub-classes. Using DLW as a reference, WI showed a mean bias of 243 kJaday, equivalent to 7.3% of mean energy intake, limits of agreement were wide at AE 1686 kJaday. Conclusion: There is no evidence from the present analysis that ED is less accurate than WI for assessing energy and nutrient sub-class intakes in groups of this age but this good agreement between methods in groups does not extend to individuals.