Children with Cerebral Palsy: Caregivers' Nutrition Knowledge, Attitudes and Beliefs

Knowledge is lacking about the feeding relationship between caregivers and children with cerebral palsy (CP). In this relationship, the child's dependency and the caregiver's influence on the child's nutrition may be magnified. A questionnaire was developed to examine caregivers' nutrition knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs. Reliability and validity were pretested with groups independent of the study. The questionnaire was administered to CP caregivers (n=52, 34% response rate) and a comparison group of non-CP caregivers (n=35). Over half of the children with CP were mildly to moderately affected by physical disability and presented with few oral-motor difficulties. Caregivers' perceptions of children's feeding behaviour did not differ between the two groups (p>0.05). Significant differences were evident in nutrition knowledge, as well as on one of two attitude scales and one of two belief scales measured. Non-CP caregivers scored higher in nutrition knowledge (p<0.001), had a more positive attitude about the importance of nutrition (p<0.05), and had a more positive belief in the relationship between nutrition and health (p<0.05). Results suggest that non-nutritional factors may have a higher priority with those caring for children with CP. Further investigation is warranted to examine the role that nutrition has in the care of children with various degrees of disability from CP. and inflammatory modulation.