Autistic Children Eating Patterns & Feeding Problems: Parents' Perspectives, Awareness, and Attitude Towards Nutrition Education Programs

Abstract Background: Recent studies have reported that different nutritional approaches have helped alleviate the severity of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) symptoms. Parents and caretakers are not always aware of the nutritional needs of autistic children, and not many awareness programs are available. Aim of Study: The current study assesses autistic children eating patterns and feeding problems encountered by parents during mealtimes, and parents awareness and attitude towards nutritional educational programs for ASD as well. Material and Methods: The study design is cross-sectional, was conducted in 2019 at local rehabilitation centers for Autistic children, Special Education and Rehabilitation Or-ganization (SERO) in Egypt, 135 parents of ASD children (<15 years) took part in the study. Face-to-face interview using questionnaires was used to gather data. The questionnaire collected socio-demographic data, health, nutritional status, what problems are faced by parents during feeding, and what limitations are faced for getting information related to feeding. The attitude towards nutritional education programs is also assessed using the questionnaire. Statistical analysis of the data is done using SPSS software. Results: The results of study sample show that there are inapproprite nutritional practices which have harmful effects on the health status, on the other hand there are healthy nutritional practices which has good effect on the health status of Autistic Children that will improve health status for them. It was found that 50% of the participants' children faced problems during feeding. The majority of the participants lack knowledge in dealing with the feeding problems faced. Due to a lack of awareness programs, 62% of the total partic-ipants never attended any awareness programs, and the com-mon source for getting information was the internet for 83.70% of participants. The majority of participants demonstrated a positive attitude towards awareness programs in regards to feeding problems. Conclusions and Implications: More nutrition educational programs need to be organized to increase awareness among the parents to improve the nutritional status of autistic children.