16487
Food Selectivity, Gastriontestinal Dysfunction, BMI Status, and Caregiver Feeding Styles in Children with ASD
To date research examining food selectivity (FS), gastrointestinal dysfunction (GID) and BMI status lead to inconsistent results, reporting both very high and low levels of co-occuring FS and GID. Furthermore, presence or type of GID and differences from typical BMI growth curves are not necessarily associated to dietary intake. A variety of treatments packages aim to increase diet variety and developing food preferences by teaching parents to apply a variety of strategies from structuring meals, reduction of response effects to antecedent approaches. Nevertheless, limited research exist on feeding practices applied by parent before specific parent training is applied. View available research indicate that parents meet their child’s selectivity demands in order to avoid maladaptive behaviors, and that permissive parent feeding styles relate negatively to children's dietary intake. Other research indicate that food selectivity is related to increased risk of obesity
Objectives:
The aim of this cross-sectional study is (1) to examine the association of the presence of GID and atypical BMI percentiles with food selectivity; (2) to specify the role parent feeding style play in this interaction.
Methods:
Fifty children with autism spectrum disorder participated in this study. Diagnostic status was determined based on the DSM-IV, ADI-R, ADOS-G and independently confirmed. Participants were aged 25 to 72 months (mean=50.42, SD=19.22) with 42 (84%) being male. All participants were registered with the Early Intervention Program at the Autism Treatment and Research Centre Una Breccia nel Muro. FS was assessed via the Brief Assessment of Mealtime Behaviors In Children (Hendy et al., 2012), dietary intake, GID and BMI via a survey adapted from Badalyan & Schwartz (2012), as well as the Caregiver’s Feeding Style Questionnaire (Hughes et al., 2011).
Results:
Preliminary results confirmed that the majority of participants (~62%) demonstrated differences from typical BMI percentiles with ~54% within overweight and obesity percentile ranges; restricted dietary intakes (~56%) with particularly lacking fruits/vegetables; gastrointestinal problems (~64%) with particularly obstipation; and lastly food selectivity issues (~68%). There was huge variety in parent feeding styles with no obvious pattern present. Detailed analysis that is subject to presentation at the congress is addressed to estimate specifically the relation between GID, BMI, and FS via Analysis of variance (ANOVA). In a second step analysis is adapted with a priori specific contrast (using high demanding/high responsive feeding style as the referent), in order to examine differences in FS, GID and BMI data between the feeding styles. We assumed that in addition to higher use of prompting strategies in parents of children with FS as of those without, there is an additional difference in feeding styles with parents being less demanding in presence of GID, leading to maintenance of selectivity and higher risk of atypical BMI percentiles.
Conclusions:
This study extends previously published work by: evaluating the role of parent feeding styles in the association of FS, GID and atypical BMI percentiles. This in turn, provides information important when evaluating the effectiveness of strategies to promote healthy eating in children with ASD.