Interventions for Feeding and Nutrition in Cerebral Palsy Executive Summary

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a “group of disorders of the development of movement and posture, causing activity limitation, that is attributed to non-progressive disturbances that occurred in the developing fetal or infant brain. The motor disorders of cerebral palsy are often accompanied by disturbances of sensation, cognition, communication, perception, and/or behaviour, and/or by a seizure disorder.”1 This group of syndromes ranges in severity and is the result of a variety of etiologies occurring in the prenatal, perinatal, or postnatal period. Though the disorder is nonprogressive, the clinical manifestations may change over time as the brain develops, with other neurologic impairments frequently co-occurring.1,2