Evaluation of the dietary behavioral attitudes and common dietary pattern among Children with autism spectrum disorders

Abstract

he main objective of conducting the current study is to investigate the dietary behavioral attitudes and common dietary pattern that occur among autistic children. Fifty-six subjects diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) involved in the study aged from 3-20 years old. All the participants filled out a survey that included questions about lifestyle, family history with ASD, dietary patterns of a specific food, allergies, gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms and measured body mass index (BMI). The collected data showed that dietary attitudes of autistic children are almost normal as 50% of participants consume 3 meals per day, and 14.3% have 4 meals per day. In addition, 80.4% (n= 45) of children were having breakfast every day. Also, based on the collected data GI problems were been prevalence among 32% of the participants. Most of the subjects (85.7%) do not suffer from milk allergies; also, most of them (91%) are not following either casein or gluten free diets. There are no significant differences in BMI between the children with and without GI problems (p=.838, independent samples t-test). In addition, BMI is not associated with the severity level of GI problems (p=0.884, ANOVA test).