Original articleReported Eating Ability of Young Children With Cerebral Palsy: Is There an Association With Gross Motor Function?
Section snippets
Methods
This study used data collected as part of a prospective, longitudinal, representative population cohort study investigating the relationship between brain structure and gross motor function in young children with CP. The CP Child study involved the recruitment of young children with CP across Victoria and Queensland, Australia, born between January 1, 2004, and December 31, 2005, in Victoria, and between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2008, in Queensland. Children with a suspected or
Results
A total of 396 assessments were performed on 170 individual children (110 boys [65%]), with a mean of 2.3 (range, 1–4) assessments per child; 53 children were assessed once, 35 were assessed twice, 55 were assessed 3 times, and 27 were assessed 4 times. Children attended at time points of 18±1, 24±1, 30±1, and 36±1 months corrected age. The numbers of children included in each age band, by sex and GMFCS levels, are shown in table 1.
The distribution of GMFCS levels at initial presentation was as
Discussion
Reported attainment of eating ability was significantly associated with gross motor functional ability as rated on the GMFCS in young children with CP between 1 year 6 months and 3 years corrected age. Children's ability to consume food textures with advancing complexity (eg, ground/lumpy, cut-up/chunky foods, all textures) was best in those with GMFCS I and progressively decreased as GMFCS level increased (or gross motor functional ability decreased). Children classified as GMFCS levels IV and
Conclusions
We observed a significant association between reported capability on food textures assessed on the PEDI and gross motor functional abilities using the GMFCS in very young children with CP. Capability on complex textures decreased as gross motor function decreased, and this was consistent across age bands from 1 year 6 months to 3 years corrected age. Future studies investigating the prevalence of OPD using objective assessment of feeding skills, relationship with capability on food textures,
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Acknowledgments
We thank Laura Pareezer, Clinical Trials Coordinator, Queensland Cerebral Palsy and Rehabilitation Research Centre, for her time on recruitment and administrative support; physiotherapists Chris Finn, Rachel Jordan, and Anne Moodie for data collection for the GMFCS classification; and dietitian Jacqueline Walker for data collection for reported feeding ability.
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Supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (Australia) (grant nos. 465128, 569605) and Queensland Health: Health Practitioner Grant.
No commercial party having a direct financial interest in the results of the research supporting this article has or will confer a benefit on the authors or on any organization with which the authors are associated.