Abstract

MAGGIONI, Luiza  and  ARAUJO, Cláudia Marina Tavares de. Guidelines and practices on feeding children with cerebral palsy. J. Hum. Growth Dev. [online]. 2020, vol.30, n.1, pp. 65-74. ISSN 0104-1282.  http://dx.doi.org/10.7322/jhgd.v30.9974.

INTRODUCTION: Cerebral palsy refers to developmental disorders with direct repercussions on posture control and motricity. Its non-progressive and happens by damage of the brain still in development. Children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) present alterations in the oral functions, which makes feeding difficult and can bring serious health consequences, such as malnutrition and pneumonia. The caregiver plays an essential role of these children's diet, so they need to know the implementation of best practices to provide safe food. Guidelines for food practices and care are essential and need to be satisfactory and effective to avoid complications and reduce stress for the caregiver and child. The speech therapist is the skilled professional in assisting and intervening in children's eating difficulties and in guiding the caregiver. However, the guidance provided is not always incorporated into daily practice, and it is key to know and understand it appropriatelyOBJECTIVE: To analyze the quality of the guidelines received and the feeding practices of caregivers of children with cerebral palsyMETHODS: This is an exploratory, cross-sectional study, involving 59 main caregivers of children with CP from 1 to 10 years of age, classified as level IV or V in the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS), with absent cervical control or compensation and fed orally. Data collection carried out through interviews with questions related to the characterization of the sample, quality of the guidelines received regarding feeding and care. The data were entered, pre-coded and processed by the Epi-info 3.5.4 program, using Fisher's exact test to compare categorical variablesRESULTS: Of the total sample, 52 participants had already received speech-language guidance regarding feeding care. Of these, 76.9% were classified as satisfactory guidelines. The most emphasized aspect is related to posture, while signs of risk of bronchoaspiration were the least oriented.The quality of the guidelines was related to safe food consistency, inadequate utensils and facilitating maneuvers during children's feedingCONCLUSION: The findings reveal that most of the caregivers receive the feeding guidelines for children with CP , however, there is no periodic and systematic monitoring of what is actually incorporated into the feeding . This may indicate a potential gap between the guidelines received by the caregivers and the effectiveness of their daily practice, especially concerning protective measures of the lower respiratory tract

Keywords : Cerebral Palsy; feeding; caregivers; deglutition disorders; childcare.

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