Identification of oromotor impairments perceived by parents related to feeding difficulties in children with cerebral palsy

One hundred and twenty two parents of children with cerebral palsy (CP) were participated in the study. The average age of children with CP in this study was 9.4 years with a range of 3–15 years. Majority of the children were male, representing a male to female ratio of nearly 3:1. Feeding problems observed in participants included sucking and swallowing problems, inability to self-feed, inadequate feeding skills, regurgitation, coughing and choking during feeding, recurrent chest infections, oral motor dysfunction, vomiting, cry/extensor dystonia during feeding, drooling, hypertonic tongue and inadequate tongue lateralization. Feeding problems were present in all sampled children. Prevalence of feeding problems was high in this study in contrast to another report which may be attributed to poor developmental age of our cases.In spite of environmental circumstances, cultural barriers and level of priority given to feeding, careers of a disabled child living in Pakistan, who have minimal formal education and live in abject poverty, are able to change care-giving practices significantly as a result of training with positive consequences for both child and caregiver. Further training is necessary for professionals who work with children in CP to enable them to fully understand the complexity of the disorder, as well as to update knowledge about current dietary interventions related to oromotor impairments and related research.