Feeding diffi culties in children with orofacialcomplex disorders

Aim. Assessment of the prevalence of the most common symptoms of feeding diffi culties in children with complex face and oral disorders.

Material and methods. The questionnaire surveycovered 175 parents. The perspective of parents/guardians was adopted as the key source of information on the child’s daily functioning, as it is usually the parents who are the fi rst to notice worrying symptoms and their impact on the child’s feeding and development.

Results. Selective eating was observed in 34.8% of children. Diffi culties with breastfeeding or bottle feeding during infancy aff ected 16.6%, problems with expanding the diet aff ected 15.2%, diffi culties with chewing, swallowing and biting aff ected 10.3%, sensory and developmental disorders aff ected 9.7%, gastroesophageal refl ux in 3.4% of cases, and conditions requiring medical assistance in 4.9% of cases. Mouth breathing, despite nasal patency, was observed in 45.1% of children. Tongue protrusion occurred in 16.8% of patients and diffi culty swallowing saliva in 14.8%.

Conclusions. The most common feeding diffi culties in children were selective eating, sensory disturbances, sucking diffi culties, and diet expansion. Most children showed normal weight gain despite reported feeding diffi culties. It is therefore important to identify feeding problems in newborns and infants early on and to provide interprofessional care.