PREVALENCE OF FUNCTIONAL FEEDING PROBLEMS IN CEREBRAL PALSY CHILDREN OF KARACHI

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Cerebral palsy is a neurodevelopmental disability that not only affects sensory, motor or cognition domains but also oral motor area that may lead to difficulties in eating, chewing, swallowing, sucking or drooling etc. Therefore, this study aims to determine the prevalence of functional feeding problems in CP children of Karachi to evaluate their needs of feeding and role of rehabilitation regarding it. METHODOLOGY The cross-sectional survey was conducted on Cerebral Palsy children aged between 6-12 years with the number of participants n=40, recruited through the non-probability sampling technique. The data was collected through Functional Feeding Assessment Scale (FFA) taken from Multi-disciplinary Feeding Profile (MFP). RESULTS A sample of 40 participants with Cerebral Palsy were enrolled in the study. This consisted of 8 boys and 32 girls with mean age 8.67 ± 1.93 years. It was showed that participants have an average score in all domains of Functional Feeding as the oral motor area is affected due to Cerebral Palsy. CONCLUSION It was concluded that CP children suffer from a number of functional feeding problems that may lead to poor nutrition, loss of appetite and decreased quality of life. The large scale surveys are recommended for the identification of feeding problems in CP using standardised tools.