Eating behaviors in children with Down syndrome: Results of a home-use test.

Children with Down syndrome (DS) display a disproportionate number of health challenges, including feeding and swallowing difficulties and food texture sensitivities. To start addressing food texture challenges early in life, the aim of this research was to understand mealtime behaviors and identify preferred food textures of children with DS. Children (aged 11 to 58 months) with DS (n = 111) and without (typically developing, TD; n = 107) participated in a home use test evaluating snack products of varying textures.

Development and application of specific questions to classify a child as food texture sensitive.

Understanding food texture sensitivity in children is important in guiding food selection. The objective of this work was to develop a short questionnaire that could be completed by parents in nonclinical settings to provide a categorization for food texture sensitivity in children. This study evaluated the distribution of children as texture sensitive (TS) or non-texture sensitive (NTS) and the predictive validity of these questions to explain rejection of specific food textures.

Development of a home-use method for the evaluation of food products by children with and without Down syndrome.

This article describes the development of a method to evaluate the acceptance of different snack food textures by children with food texture sensitivities, including children with and without Down syndrome (DS). An in-home use test (HUT) was developed to reflect recent taste study and allow greater recruitment. In this study, parents with children (ages 11-60 months) with DS (CWDS) and without (typically developing, CTD) were recruited and based on responses to several questions, children were categorized as food texture sensitive (TS) or nontexture sensitive (NTS).

Parent-reported ease of eating foods of different textures in young children with Down syndrome.

Food texture has been identified as a significant contributor to feeding problems in children, particularly in children with Down syndrome (DS). This study examined the open-ended survey responses of parents describing which food textures were "easy" or "difficult" for their child with DS. The open-ended responses from the parents about textures and foods they considered "easy" or "difficult" for their child (n = 157) were coded into 26 texture categories.