Dyslipidemia in children with feeding difficulties - a cross-sectional study in a Brazilian reference center

Abstract

This study aimed at describing the lipid profile of children with feeding difficulties (FD), as well as to verify the impact of clinical types of FD and other markers on the presence of dyslipidemias (DLP). It was a cross-sectional study with 61 children between 2 and 10 years old. The following data was collected from medical records: age, gender, duration of exclusive breastfeeding (months), dosages of total cholesterol, HDL, LDL, VLDL and triglycerides (according to recommendations for age), type of FD, BMI z-score, dietary intake of carbohydrates and lipids (% energy intake), and daily consumption of milk (ml), fiber (g) and sugar sweetened beverages (SSB, ml). T-Student-test and ANOVA test were used, with a 5% significance level. Children were mostly picky eaters (55.7%), and 47.5% had dyslipidemia, mostly low HDL-c (27.6%) and hypertriglyceridemia (21.9%). No significant relationship was found between DLP and duration of exclusive breastfeeding (p= 0.93), BMI (p> 0.40), type of FD (p> 0.26), or dietary characteristics (p> 0.12). Children with dyslipidemia tended to drink higher volumes of SSB when compared to recommended values (p= 0.044). The prevalence of DLP found was higher than the average shown in children. More studies are needed to prove if there is a true association between FD and dyslipidemia.