The Spastic Children’s Foundation of Turkey- Cerebral Palsy Turkey and Nutricia Turkey jointly implemented the “An Energetic Step in Cerebral Palsy – No Nutrition” project, reaching 31 children and their families in its first year, and positively impacting both the children’s eating and drinking skills and their communication functions. made progress. The project, whose first year ended successfully, continues by providing support to 20 children in 2022, while all children reached within the scope of the project are provided with personalized multidisciplinary treatment as well as nutritional counseling for the sustainable effect of the treatment.
Nutrition and multidisciplinary treatment are of great importance in Cerebral Palsy, which is diagnosed in more than six thousand babies every year in Turkey. Eating-swallowing problems, frequent vomiting, and feeding problems such as getting food stuck in the throat during meals lead to prolonged meals and malnutrition, causing growth-development retardation, respiratory infections and reduced immunity in children with Cerebral Palsy. In this regard, Spastic Children’s Foundation of Turkey, Cerebral Palsy Turkey and Nutricia Turkey, aiming to prevent children’s nutritional problems, joined hands and implemented the project “An Energetic Step in Cerebral Palsy – No Nutrition”. In the first year of the project, 31 children and their families were reached and their treatment was met with multidisciplinary methods. With the physiotherapy, dietitian, language and speech therapy, and psychological support provided within the scope of the project, positive developments were observed especially in children’s communication functions, hand skills, development and growth. In addition, the severity of swallowing disorders and anxiety scale of children with Cerebral Palsy were reduced.
The Energetic Step in Cerebral Palsy – No Nutrition Project, which was successfully completed in 2021 and reveals that proper nutrition supports the physical, mental and psychological development of children with Cerebral Palsy and contributes to the treatment process, will continue in 2022 and this year, 20 children will be treated. their growth and development will be evaluated, and their special nutrition programs and treatments will be started.
“We support children with Cerebral Palsy with personalized 360-degree treatment”
Emphasizing the importance of healthy and proper nutrition for children with Cerebral Palsy, Turkish Spastic Children’s Foundation- Cerebral Palsy Turkey General Director Nigar Evgin; “We attach great importance to the “An Energetic Step in Cerebral Palsy – No Nutrition” project, which we have implemented with Nutricia Turkey. We plan holistic therapies including Physiotherapy, Language and Speech, Psychology and Developmental Counseling as well as Dietician service for each Cerebral Palsy child we reach within the scope of the project, after the process that starts with the evaluations of our experts involved in the project. With these personalized treatments, we prepare a nutrition plan for children with Cerebral Palsy to have a healthy and proper physical posture and to accelerate the development of oral motor functions.” he said.
Cenk Kurt, Nutricia Turkey Specialist Nutrition Director, said the following about the project; “We aim to reach 51 children in total by the end of this year with the “An Energetic Step in Cerebral Palsy – No Nutrition” project, which we started in order to help children with Cerebral Palsy develop and lead a healthier and more comfortable life. It is very valuable for us to witness the improvement in the communication of children with Cerebral Palsy with their environment, especially in their eating and drinking skills, and to observe the results such as the decrease in anxiety and hopelessness levels, on the other hand, with the treatment applied with multidisciplinary methods within the scope of the project. On the other hand, there are approximately 96 thousand children with Cerebral Palsy in Turkey, so we care about raising awareness on this issue as much as the treatment support we provide to our children, whom we can directly touch with this project. Last year, we achieved successful results by reaching large audiences in our goal of raising awareness in the society with live broadcasts and information sessions with expert doctors on social media channels within the scope of the project. This year, we will continue to focus on our awareness activities.”
