Jovita Petrulytė, Laima Mikulėnaitė, Skaistė Akinytė-Žalienė, Eglė Audronytė, Juozas Raistenskis, Alvydas Juocevičius
Abstract
Feeding is one of most the important aspects of parenting, which often affects the quality of life of the family. For the succesful care of child and family in rehabilitation setting it is very important to know how parents perceive and deal with feeding problems of children. Goal of the study: To analyze how parents of developmentally disabled children perceive feeding problems of their children and how this perception is related with family life. Methodology. Anonymous survey was carried out in Child Development Center of Children‘s hospital, Vilnius university hospital SK. Randomly selected group of 44 parents of preschool age children filled the questionnaires. The data about feeding problems experienced by the families, feeling related to feeding children and abilities of family to adapt to the situation were analyzed. Results. The study group was divided in to 3 groups: Study group of mild feeding difficulties and good adaptation( N=19), study group of moderate and severe feeding difficulties( N =17) and control group – children with no feeding difficulties (N=8). Parents‘ confidence during feeding process was less in both study groups than in control group. Satisfaction during feeding was experienced by 63% of parents in the mild feeding difficulties group and 5% of parents in the group of moderate/ severe feeding difficulties group. During assessment of factors influencing parents‘ satisfaction with feeding process reliable correlation was determined between less satisfaction and more personal attempts and more family support needed to adapt to the feeding situation. As consequence of the feeding problems 10% of parents in mild difficulties group and 47% of parents in moderate/severe difficulties group were devoting less attention to other family members. Conclusions: 1. Parents satisfaction during feeding children is affected even by mild feeding problems. 2. Parent‘s satisfaction with in feeding process is related to severity of feeding problems and attempts needed to adapt to the situation. 3. Parents experiencing moderate and severe feeding problems, devote less attention to other family members, therefore the whole family needs adaptation and support.
Article in Lithuanian
Keyword(s): feeding; development of children; parenting; family needs
DOI: 10.5200/377
Full Text: PDF