Prevalence of Feeding Problems in Children with Intellectual Disability

Objectives: Feeding is an essential function which affects quality of life of the intellectually disabled (ID) persons. Approximately 80% of the severe and profound mentally retarded population have some feeding difficulties. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of feeding problems in children with ID. Methods: In this cross-sectional descriptive study, 144 individuals with Intellectual Disability referred to speech and language pathology clinic were included using random sampling. To gather the data, Screening Tool of feeding Problems (STEP) was used. Dِata analysis was done through SPSS. Results: The findings of the study indicated that all subjects were somehow involved with feeding problems. The results also show that mean score of problem in feeding skills (2.41) are most prevalent and aspiration risks (0.37) are of less prevalence among the subjects. Analyses revealed that gender and level of ID severity are effective factors in feeding problems. Discussion: Our study indicates that in children with ID, eating problems are more prevalent than previously reported. The importance of these data is further underscored by the fact that the majority of these feeding problems had not been previously identified.