• HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
Wednesday, August 6, 2025
BIOENGINEER.ORG
No Result
View All Result
  • Login
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • EXPLORE
    • CAREER
      • Companies
      • Jobs
        • Lecturer
        • PhD Studentship
        • Postdoc
        • Research Assistant
    • EVENTS
    • iGEM
      • News
      • Team
    • PHOTOS
    • VIDEO
    • WIKI
  • BLOG
  • COMMUNITY
    • FACEBOOK
    • INSTAGRAM
    • TWITTER
No Result
View All Result
Bioengineer.org
No Result
View All Result
Home NEWS Science News Chemistry

Food texture key to eating habits in children with Down syndrome

Bioengineer by Bioengineer
August 29, 2022
in Chemistry
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on RedditShare on Telegram

Children with Down syndrome prefer food with a crispy, oily mouthfeel and don’t like brittle or gooey foods. But those preferences can lead to a less nutritious diet, according to Washington State University research published in the Journal of Texture Studies.

Ross with child

Credit: Photo courtesy Carolyn Ross, Washington State University

Children with Down syndrome prefer food with a crispy, oily mouthfeel and don’t like brittle or gooey foods. But those preferences can lead to a less nutritious diet, according to Washington State University research published in the Journal of Texture Studies.

“Children with Down syndrome really enjoy foods like Pirate’s Booty and puffed corn,” said Carolyn Ross, a professor in WSU’s School of Food Science. “Those foods aren’t of high nutritional value, but they’re dissolvable—a huge plus for these children. Now the challenge is making nutritious foods with those characteristics.”

The paper examined what food textures children with Down syndrome liked or didn’t like and how those preferences compared to typically developing children’s preferences.

In the U.S., one in 772 babies (around 5,100 each year), are born with Down syndrome, a genetic condition caused by a full or partial extra copy of chromosome 21. Feeding and swallowing impairments are common, and a key predictor of increased death among those individuals.

It’s been known for years that children with Down syndrome don’t eat as much as typically developing children, but nobody has studied food textures as a factor. This research could help clinicians and parents determine what foods will get eaten, while hopefully prompting food manufacturers to tailor products to this population’s specific needs, Ross said.

“This was a huge area of missing research,” Ross said. “There are many anecdotal stories, and you can go down an online rabbit hole to find information. But studies like this can help parents and clinicians know what these children will be most likely to eat and help reduce incidences of choking. If we can add nutritional value to those foods, then we’ll really help a lot of people.”

Choking is one of the leading causes of death among people with Down syndrome because they may not chew food enough or “pack” it, overfilling their mouths and cheeks without swallowing.

Children with Down syndrome have various health issues, more than typically developing children, including feeding and swallowing challenges and food texture sensitivities. Ross wants to help children with Down syndrome have more healthy eating options and become more comfortable with complex textures.

“We want to help people understand what food textures children with Down syndrome prefer, and how to move them from things like pureed foods to texturally complex foods, which tend to have more nutritional value,” Ross said.

Ross and her team sent boxes with 16 commercially available kinds of food to 218 children aged 11 to 18 in 30 states. Of those boxes, 111 went to children with Down syndrome, the rest to a control group of typically developing youth.

The boxes contained four items in each of four different texture groups to ensure that flavor wasn’t the reason for a texture preference. The research team asked parents about disliked flavors before the boxes were sent, to avoid those products. All children in the study ate one of each item every day for a week to make sure enjoyment wasn’t due to novelty.

The parents then filmed the children interacting with and eating each item, uploading the videos  to the research team.

“We coded a lot of data; it’s the biggest home-use test involving children with Down syndrome that we’ve ever heard of,” Ross said. “And it showed a big difference in texture preference between children with and without Down syndrome.”



Journal

Journal of Texture Studies

DOI

10.1111/jtxs.12703

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Eating behaviors in children with Down syndrome: Results of a home-use test

Article Publication Date

13-Jun-2022

COI Statement

The authors declare that they do not have any conflict of interests.

Share12Tweet7Share2ShareShareShare1

Related Posts

Revolutionizing Ultrafast Demagnetization: Advances in Magnetic Field Acceleration

Revolutionizing Ultrafast Demagnetization: Advances in Magnetic Field Acceleration

August 5, 2025
Scientists Investigate ‘Super Alcohol’ Offering Clues to Life Beyond Earth

Scientists Investigate ‘Super Alcohol’ Offering Clues to Life Beyond Earth

August 5, 2025

Solid Solvation Boosts All-Solid-State Organic Batteries

August 5, 2025

AI Accelerates Development of Stronger, More Durable Plastics

August 5, 2025

POPULAR NEWS

  • blank

    Neuropsychiatric Risks Linked to COVID-19 Revealed

    73 shares
    Share 29 Tweet 18
  • Overlooked Dangers: Debunking Common Myths About Skin Cancer Risk in the U.S.

    61 shares
    Share 24 Tweet 15
  • Predicting Colorectal Cancer Using Lifestyle Factors

    46 shares
    Share 18 Tweet 12
  • Dr. Miriam Merad Honored with French Knighthood for Groundbreaking Contributions to Science and Medicine

    47 shares
    Share 19 Tweet 12

About

We bring you the latest biotechnology news from best research centers and universities around the world. Check our website.

Follow us

Recent News

GABA Best Detects Early Parkinson’s Changes with RBD

Flavor and Bioactive Potential of Roasted Rice Bran Oil

New Research from Pitt Reveals Potential of Cellphone Data in Diagnosing and Treating Mental Health Disorders

  • Contact Us

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Homepages
    • Home Page 1
    • Home Page 2
  • News
  • National
  • Business
  • Health
  • Lifestyle
  • Science

Bioengineer.org © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.