Good nutrition is important for your child or young person with CP, so they can reach their potential in growth and development.

The benefits of good nutrition include:

• improved weight and growth
• improved immune function
• decreased irritability
• improved cognitive ability (brain-based skills involved in thinking, learning, problem-solving, and reasoning)
• more rapid recovery from surgery and illness
• a general improvement in wellbeing
• improved circulation.

It is important that you speak with your child or young person’s healthcare team any time you are concerned about whether their diet is adequate, or if they have difficulty with feeding or swallowing. This can affect the quality of the nutrients they are getting and can create potential health issues, such as chest infections (from inhaled food).

Your healthcare team will often include allied health professionals, such as a dietitian and a speech pathologist, who can assess your child, monitor changes in their height and weight, and create a program to support their nutritional needs. This often includes education about good nutrition and whether nutritional supplements are required.

Some of the reasons that children and young people with CP can have poor nutrition include:

• difficulties with chewing or swallowing
• having a poor appetite if they experience problems such as constipation or reflux
• having frequent infections or hospital visits
• needing a diet that has a different consistency, such as soft, minced or puréed
• having to rely on others for feeding assistance.

As children and young people with CP grow and experience new environments, such as school and social events, they may require different strategies to manage their nutritional needs. Getting the right support at each stage of their development is important.

Your healthcare team can provide suggestions and approaches for you to try that can support and improve your child’s eating, drinking and overall nutrition. These may include:

• looking at the nutritional quality of the diet and making changes to it, if required
• looking at problems that can be helped with a change in diet, such as adding fibre for constipation
• trying techniques such as having smaller meals often, rather than three bigger meals
• how to provide foods with different textures, such as thickened drinks or mashed food, if required
• considering supplements for nutrients that might be lacking in the diet.

Changes to diet or feeding techniques should only be undertaken with a healthcare team’s supervision.