Exploring Eating and Nutritional Challenges for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Parents’ and Special Educators’ Perceptions

Abstract

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disability that is frequently associated with food refusal, limited food repertoire and high-frequency single food intake mainly among children with ASD. Provision of nutrition can be very challenging due to the fact of these behavioural problems, either for the parents or special educators. Healthy nutrition is associated with providing and consuming nutritious food with results being in a good state of health. Semi-structured focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted among 20 participants at a National Autism Centre to explore their understanding towards healthy nutrition. They were parents and special educators who were actively involved with children with ASD. A series of discussions were transcribed verbatim, and four researchers examined each transcript. Inductive analysis linking codes into main thematic categories was conducted using the constant comparison approach across the full data set. The outcome suggested that participants had limited knowledge relating to the proper dietary and nutritional needs of the children. The key messages from the discussion provide a foundation on the development of a nutrition education module which involves primary caretakers of children with ASD.

Eating Behaviors of Children with Autism—Pilot Study, Part II

“…The average time of meal consumption in both groups was between 10 to 20 min, which is consistent with the principles of proper feeding. The eating behavior pattern observed in the autistic children based on this analysis shows how complex and difficult the problem of feeding is to the parents/caregivers, which is confirmed in the available literature [13,35,36].…”

“…Such preferences may derive from the sensory processing disorder (the simultaneous processing of information, arriving through many senses, during the act of eating). Oral health problems, such as dental damage and a possible inability to chew, may also affect the preferences [35]. The need of "sameness" cannot be excluded as the influencing factor in selecting food by autistic individuals.…”

“…If any characteristic of food becomes such a restrictive criterion for a child that it consequently limits the acceptable list of food just to a few products, then attention must be paid to the problem of food selectivity. Establishing the cause may help with indicating the therapeutic method [28,35,41].…”

Dietary Fat Effect on the Gut Microbiome, and Its Role in the Modulation of Gastrointestinal Disorders in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…For example, higher food fussiness has been found to increase the risk of functional constipation, and functional constipation occurrence predicted a greater risk of picky eating in children, indicating the presence of a bi-directional relationship between food intake and GID, leading to the developing of a vicious cycle between these two factors [70]. Addressing these complications can prove to be more challenging in ASD, as the child's food preferences, lack of acceptance of new foods, and lack of parental knowledge may pose limitations in adhering to nutritional advice [71].…”

Aspectos sensoriais e a seletividade alimentar da criança com transtorno do espectro autista: um estudo de revisão integrativa

“…2º do Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente, (Lei n.8.069, de 13 de julho de 1990), considera-se criança toda as pessoas com até 12 anos incompletos (Brasil, 1990). Tanner et al, 2015;Marshall et al, 2015;Marshall et al, 2016;Chistol et al, 2018;Seiverling et al, 2018;Ismail, Ramli, Hamzaid & Hassan, 2020;Oliveira e Frutuoso, 2021).…”