AN EVALUATION OF THE NUTRITIONAL PROFILE OF TEENAGERS WITH DOWN SYNDROME FOR AN EFFICIENT DIETETIC COUNSELING

To evaluate the nutritional profile of 18 teenagers with Down syndrome, resident in the south region of the State of Tocantins. For the research the method of context evaluation, that helps define and describe the environmental concerned a phenomenon. A reference distribution recommended by the World Health Organization was used for an anthropometric evaluation for teenagers of the population in general, which uses the body mass index associated to measuring thetricipital and the subscapular cutaneous folds. The Questionnaire for the Feeding Frequency of Teenagers adapted to the current study, was applied for evaluating the nutritious quality, which data was compared with the Adapted Alimentary Pyramid. This experiment, 61% of the subjects present an excess body mass. From these, by the cutaneous folds measurements, 63.6% have fat above the desirable level. The nutritious habits showed themselves to be inadequate, once a lesser than recommended consumption of vegetables, fruits, milk, and dairy products was ascertained, as well the exaggerated consumption of meats, eggs, sugars, cereals, tubercle breads, and roots. It was concluded that the subjects with Down syndromepresent a tendency to become overweight and even obese, a problem which can be aggravated by inadequate feeding habits detected in the study. An alimentary reeducation being necessary, this evaluation of context can contribute to planning an efficient nutritional intervention for this population group, which can bring benefits totheir lives.