<![CDATA[Background Children with cerebral palsy (CP) often have feedingdifficulties due to their disability. This results in inadequate calorieintake which finally leads to malnutrition. Several studies foundthat 30-90% of children with CP have feeding difficulties associ-ated with malnutrition. There has been no sufficient publisheddata about this problem in Indonesia.Objective To determine the prevalence of feeding difficulties andmalnutrition in children with CP.Methods A cross-sectional study was done from January toSeptember 2005 in the pediatric outpatient clinic of Dr. CiptoMangunkusumo Hospital (CMH). Children with CP underwentnutritional and feeding difficulties assessment. Nutritional sta-tus was determined by the ratio of body weight to body heightstandardized to CDC-NCHS 2000 growth curve and wereclassified based on Waterlow. Calorie intake was evaluated bydietary analysis and defined as adequate if it reached 13.9 kcal/em BH ± 10%. Feeding difficulties assessment included historytaking, physical examination and observation of feeding skill inthe outpatient clinic.Results Fifty-five children with CP were included in this study,most of them were spastic type, mainly spastic diplegic and spasticquadriplegic cerebral palsy (SQCP). Malnutrition was found in76% subjects, most were SQCP. Feeding difficulties were found in76% subjects, half of them were SQCP, 38% with spastic diplegic.Thirty- eight percents of the parents whose children had feedingdifficulties was not aware of these problems in their children.Parallel with data above, 78% subjects received inadequatecalorie intake.Conclusions The prevalence of undernourished and severemalnutrition in children with CP is 66% and 11% respectively.Malnutrition in CP patients tends to be related with inad-equate calorie intake due to feeding difficulties that is found in78% subjects especially those with SQCP]]>
