Dietary patterns and feeding problems of Turkish children with intellectual disabilities and typically developing children

Abstract

This study aimed to determine whether dietary patterns and feeding problems differ among children with intellectual disabilities (ID) and typically developing children (TDC) in Turkey. This cross-sectional study was conducted in 220 (112 children with ID and 108 TDC) 7-12 aged children in Konya, Turkey. We assessed usual dietary intakes by a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire and gathered information on the children’s problems about feeding by a feeding assessment survey. Children with ID were found to consume significantly more daily servings of Juice and sweetened non-dairy beverages (2.3 versus 1.2, p = 0.02) and desserts (4.2 versus 2.8, p = 0.01) and significantly fewer daily servings of vegetables (0.8 versus 1.8, p = 0.008) than TDC. The most common problems of children with ID were limited food variety, eating fast and eating too much. We found that limited food variety and food refusal problems are common in children with ID but not in TDC. Other problems, difficulty swallowing and skipping dinner, are less common in both groups.

Keywords: Children with intellectual disability, Dietary patterns, Feeding problems.