Determinants of the SLEEP and Eating Problems in NEWLY-Diagnosed Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Background: Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are known to suffer from significantly more sleep and eating problems than typically developing children, but less is known about the determinants of these problems especially in early ages.

Objectives:  This study evaluated the relationships of severity of ASD, behavioral problems, sensory hypersensitivity, and parental psychiatric symptoms to severity of sleep and eating problems in preschool children with ASD.

Methods: The sample consisted of 46 newly-diagnosed children with ASD aged 21–63 months. The ADI-R was used to measure the severity of ASD and parents reports on a range

of scales were collected.

Results: According to regression analyses, there were regression relationships between lower ADI-R communication scores and more sensory processing impairment in movement area to

higher emotional overeating scores, higher maternal somatization scores to higher food responsiveness scores, more sensory processing impairment in taste/smell area to lower

enjoyment of food and higher satiety responsiveness scores, more sensory processing impairment in visual area to higher slowness in eating scores, and higher paternal hostility and child irritability scores to higher emotional undereating scores. Regarding to eating problems, a positive association between streotypic behavior and sleep problems in these children was observed.

Conclusions: Findings of this study suggest that a variety of variables such as severity of ASD, coexisting behavioral problems, sensory hypersensitivity, and parental pscyhiatric status may have an impact on child eating behaviors in preschool children with ASD. However, only streotypic behaviors showed a relationship with sleep problems in these children.

See more of: Medical and Psychiatric Comorbidity
See more of: Medical and Psychiatric Comorbidity