Nutritional assessment of the preschool child requires a variety of invasive and noninvasive techniques, for example, dietary history, physical examination, clinical observations, anthropometric data, and biochemical studies. The purpose of the assessment dictates the methods used, whereas the setting dictates the sequence in which they are used. This article examines these methods from an organismic-ecological perspective and emphasizes those methods of nutritional assessment that are most applicable in the preschool setting. Criteria for identifying children at nutritional risk, commonly encountered altered nutritional outcomes, and implications for interdisciplinary assessment and intervention are discussed.
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