Investigation of nutrition behaviour, parent feeding style and anthropometric measurements in preschool children diagnosed with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder

Aim: The aim of this study was to compare developmental nutrition characteristics, eating behaviours, parental feeding style and some anthropometric measurements of preschool children with ADHD who referred to pediatric psychiatry polyclinic with a healthy group. Method: 86 patients aged between 4 and 6 years of age who referred to İnönü University, Faculty of Medicine, Turgut Özal Medical Centre Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Polyclinic and who were diagnosed with ADHD according to DSM-5 diagnostic criteria between July 2018 and January 2019 were included in the study. The control group consisted of 75 healthy and volunteering children who were matched in terms of age and sex with the study group. Height, weight, upper middle arm circumference and triceps skin fold thickness of the participants were measured by the researcher. Primary caretakers of the children were given Behavioral Pediatric Feeding Assessment Scale (BPFAS), Parental Feeding Style Questionnaire (PFSQ), Children's Eating Behavior Questionnaire (CEBQ), Sociodemographic Information Form (SDIFF), Development Evaluation Form (DEF), Preschool Screening and Assessment Scale for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Disruptive Behaviour Disorder Symptoms and Conner's Parent Rating Scale (CPRS). Results: Of the 86 children included in the study group, 62 were male (72.1%), 24 were female (27.9%), and 50 of the 75 children in the control group were male (66.7%) and 25 were female (33.3%). The mean age of the study group was 60.71 ± 13.21 months and the mean age of the control group was 57.77 ± 11.87 months. It was found that the children in the study group were fed a more limited diet than the control group. Weight-Z and BMI-Z scores of the children in the study group were found to be significantly higher. It was found that the children in the study group showed more passion for drinking, eating problems, food selectivity and late period food rejection behaviours.Parents of the children in the study group were found to show more helping feeding style.When the correlations between CPRS and BPFAS scores of the children in the study group were examined, significant positive correlations were found between "CPRS hyperactivity sub-dimension" and "BPFAS total score", "early period rejection of food" and "late period rejection of food"; and between "CPRS attention deficit sub-dimension" and "BPFAS total score", "food selectivity", "early period rejection of rough food" and "late period rejection of food" scores. Discussion: Behavioural problems, such as impaired eating habits, which are thought to be related to the main features of ADHD, may have an impact on nutritional behaviour and feeding style.This can lead to problems such as overweight / obesity.Timely recognition and management of the relationship between eating behaviour and ADHD symptoms at an early age can improve the life quality of children and parents by preventing other physical and mental problems that may accompany