Dieting in children referred to the paediatric outpatient clinic.

Abstract

Dietary interventions are sometimes necessary, even in young children; however, adhering to a diet can cause medical and psychosocial problems. Therefore, insight into frequency, reasons, and effectiveness is important. To establish the prevalence of dieting in children referred to a general paediatric outpatient clinic, parents of newly referred patients were given a structured questionnaire. Excluded were children whose parents did not speak Dutch, those younger than 3 months and emergency cases. Of 1826 patients, 907 (511 boys, 56%; median age 5 years, range 0-18 years) were included; 124 (13.7%, 95% CI 11.5%-15.9%) were or had been on a diet, more boys than girls (82/511 versus 42/396, P=0.02). In 60% of patients, the diet was started before the age of 2 years, 50% had been dieting longer than a year. Diets most used were: cow's milk free (62%), egg-free (20%), lactose-free (14%), no sugar (20%) and no colouring additives (20%). Reasons for dieting were gastrointestinal (51%), dermal (51%) and behavioural (27%) symptoms or complaints. Dieting was considered effective by the parents in 65% of cases and 61% reported no problems. One in eight children, referred to a general paediatric outpatient clinic is or has been dieting. Most parents reported positive effects with no problems. Some children were on a difficult-to-keep diet with serious medical and psychosocial implications, without being tested. Scientific evidence for dieting should be sought and the results discussed with the parents.