Dietary Counseling Program for Mothers of Children with Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture. CP is the most common motor disability in childhood. Cerebral means having to do with the brain. Palsy means weakness or problems with using the muscles. Aim: This study aimed to evaluate dietary counseling program for mothers of children with cerebral palsy through, assess mothers' knowledge and practices regarding to cerebral palsy; and appraise dietary counseling program for mothers of children diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Setting: This study conducted at faculty of physical therapy of Cairo University and neuro outpatient clinic in Sayed Galal hospital at Bab-AL-Shareya Cairo, Egypt. Design: A quasi experimental design was used. Subject: This study included seventy mothers of children with cerebral palsy came to neuro outpatient clinic at faculty of physical therapy of Cairo university and fifty mothers of children with cerebral palsy from neuro outpatient clinic in Sayed Galal hospital at Bab-AL-Shareya Cairo, Egypt. Tools: An interview questionnaire tool used in this study pre and post dietary counseling program, include three parts, I) socio-demographic characteristics for mothers of children with cerebral palsy; II) Mothers’ knowledge (pre and post) regarding to cerebral palsy; and III) Mothers' reported practices regarding dietary counseling program for their children with cerebral palsy. Results: an improvement of mothers' Knowledge and reported practice post dietary program than pre the program, the mothers' Knowledge mean and standard deviation pre-program is (53.0702 ± 29.77748), while post-program is89.3202 ± 11.68589 with highly statistically significant differences, also the mothers' reported practice mean and standard deviation pre-program is (42.6667 ± 27.76653), and post-program is (75.0833 ± 20.29181) with highly statistically significant differences. Conclusion Mothers' knowledge and reported practices toward their children with cerebral palsy improved significantly post implementation of the dietary program. Recommended: Periodically dietary counseling program for mothers help to improve their practices for enhancement of dietary condition for their children with cerebral palsy and reduce the complications of cerebral palsy and malnutrition