Habitual diet assessment in adolescents with the down’s syndrome

The eating habits formation of the individuals with the Down’s syndrome deserves special attention because, besides specific anatomical and physiological alterations, some aspects also interfere in this process. Among them, the parents’behavior is the one that counts most, and it’s essential to establish a healthy diet. Facing this, the objective in this study was to assess the habitual diet in eight overweight adolescents with the Down’s syndrome living in the South Region of Tocantins State. These adolescents are between 10 and 19 years of age. To instrumentalize the referred assessment, the Food Frequency Questionnaire for Adolescents was applied and it was compared with the Adapted Food Pyramid recommendations. It was observed 82% of the adolescents used to eat less than the recommended amount of the vegetables and cereal/bread/tubers/roots; 68% eat less fruits and 87% eat less milk/dairy products groups. It was also detected an exaggeration in the consumption of grains, meat/eggs and sugar/candy groups. It was concluded that the adolescents habitually keep a diet out of the pattern considered healthy. It’s predominantly easy chewing food and high in calories, what may bring risks of getting overweight and even obese. Thus, it’s vital to go through an eating re-education process, in whichthe family has participation, so that changes in the eating habits may be achieved.