Choking is a leading cause of death in Down syndrome patients. They may not chew or “pack” their food properly, and overfill their mouths with food without swallowing.
Down syndrome children prefer crispy, oily food and avoid brittle and gooey foods. New research shows that these preferences may lead to a lower-nutrition diet.
Carolyn Ross, a WSU professor in the School of Food Science, said that children with Down syndrome enjoy foods such as puffed corn and Pirate’s Booty. She also stated, “Those foods don’t have high nutritional value but they’re dissolvable — which is a huge plus.” The challenge now is to create nutritious foods that have these characteristics.
This paper looked at what foods children with Down syndrome preferred and how they compared to other children.
One in 772 American babies is born with Down syndrome. This genetic condition results from a partial or full extra copy of chromosome 21. Common symptoms include swallowing and feeding difficulties, which can lead to an increase in death rates.
Although it has been well known that Down syndrome children do not eat as many foods as other children, no one has ever studied the impact of food textures on their eating habits. Ross stated that this research could aid parents and clinicians in determining what foods are most popular, as well as allowing food manufacturers to better tailor their products to the needs of Down syndrome patients.
Ross stated that this was an area where there was much missing research. Ross said that there are many stories and information online. These studies can be used to help clinicians and parents determine what children are most likely to eat, and reduce the likelihood of them choking. We can make these foods more nutritious, which will help many people.
Choking is a leading cause of death in Down syndrome patients. They may not chew or “pack” their food properly, and overfill their mouths with food without swallowing.
Down syndrome children have more health problems than other children. These incorporate taking care of and gulping troubles and aversions to food surfaces. Ross hopes to make it easier for children with Down syndrome to eat healthy foods and be more comfortable with complex textures.
Ross stated, “We want people to understand what food textures children suffering from Down syndrome prefer and how to get them to change from pureed foods to texturally complicated foods that have more nutritional value.”
Ross and her team sent 16 types of food commercially available to 218 children in 30 states. One hundred and eleven boxes contained 16 types of food that were commercially available. The rest went to typically developing youth.
To ensure that the boxes didn’t contain any flavor, they contained four items from each of the four texture groups. To avoid these products, the research team interviewed parents about their disliked flavors. To ensure that the novelty wasn’t a factor in their enjoyment, all children were asked to eat one of each item per day for a week.
The parents then recorded their children eating and interacting with each item, and uploaded the videos to the research team.
Ross stated, “We coded a lot; it’s one of the largest home-use tests involving Down syndrome children that we’ve ever seen.” It showed a significant difference in texture preference between Down syndrome and non-Down syndrome children.
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