EATING IN PRESCHOOL-CHILDREN WITH CYSTIC-FIBROSIS AND HEALTHY PEERS -BEHAVIORAL-ANALYSIS

Study objective. To investigate calorie intake, behavioral eating styl es, and parent perception of eating behavior of preschool children wit h cystic fibrosis (CF) compared with healthy peers. Design. A two grou p comparison study. Setting. A clinical sample of 32 preschool childre n with CF (aged 2 to 5 years) and a community sample of 29 healthy pee rs matched for age and socioeconomic status. Measurements and main res ults. The two groups did not differ on the total number of calories co nsumed per day or the percentage of calories derived form fat. The CF sample achieved a significantly higher percent of the recommended dail y allowance (RDA) of energy (95% RDA) than the control group (84% RDA) , P < .05, but did not achieve the CF dietary recommendations of 120% RDA. On measures of behavioral eating style, the CF sample had signifi cantly longer meals (24.63 min) than the control group (18.57 mint, P < .01, but did not differ on pace of eating or calories consumed per b ite. On a measure of parent report of mealtime behavior, parents of th e CF sample identified mealtime behaviors of ''dawdles'' and ''refuses food'' as more problematic (M = .93) than parents of control children (M = .22), P < .05. Conclusions. While preschool children with CF con sume as much or more than healthy peers, they are not achieving the CF dietary recommendations. Furthermore, there appear to be behavioral d ifferences in eating and parent perception of CF children's eating tha t may contribute to the failure to achieve dietary recommendations.