Focus on early eating, drinking and swallowing
Research type
Research Study
Full title
FEEDS: Focus on early eating, drinking and swallowing
IRAS ID
215629
Contact name
Jeremy Parr
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Newcastle Joint Research Office
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 1 months, 30 days
Research summary
Young children with developmental difficulties may also have eating, drinking and swallowing problems. We want to find out how they are currently offered help by NHS services. We then want to gather information in order to plan a future study of one or more potentially worthwhile treatments.
Long-term conditions in children affecting the brain, nerves and muscles are often grouped under the term ‘neurodisability’. Difficulties with eating and drinking are common in young children with neurodisability. Eating and drinking difficulties may lead to a restricted diet, poor growth, and impact on development, in addition to general physical health risks such as choking or chest infections. The difficulties may also create stress at mealtimes that can affect wider aspects of family life.
Some young children have mostly physical difficulties; for example, those with cerebral palsy may find chewing and swallowing problematic. Other young children have mostly sensory difficulties, such as extreme sensitivity to lumpy food, or difficulties associated with not wanting to eat or making faddy choices, such as in children with autism. Some children have combinations of difficulties. A team of health professionals usually works with parents and carers of young children with eating and drinking difficulties. The professionals identify the cause of the child’s difficulties and suggest to parents how eating and drinking might be improved. This could include adjusting posture, reducing the child's sensitivity to certain textures, using medication, or special equipment. The treatments suggested depend on the cause of the child’s difficulty.
As we do not have strong evidence on whether the treatments suggested by professionals actually work, we need to conduct careful research to understand whether they are effective. However, before doing these studies we need to know which treatments are regularly recommended, which types of improvement in eating and drinking are considered most important by parents and professionals, and how best to measure a child’s progress. This will help us to decide which treatments should be tested in a future study and how to assess whether they work.
Using discussion groups and surveys with parents and professionals, we will find out the different treatments recommended for young children with eating and drinking difficulties and how acceptable they are to parents. We will also ask how we should measure improvements in a child’s eating and drinking and other related areas that are important to families; and how long after the treatments have been started we should assess success. Then we will examine the published research literature to see what is currently known about the effectiveness of treatments people think could be important.
We will combine all the information to identify whether there are treatments that would be worth investigating further, and how best to measure children’s progress with eating and drinking. We will meet again with parents and professionals, and meet young people who have experienced eating and drinking difficulties, to see whether we can agree how to test treatments in further research. Finally we will make recommendations about how future studies should be designed and conducted.
REC name
West Midlands - Black Country Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/WM/0439
Date of REC Opinion
3 Jan 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion