Altered food intake and taste perception in children with cancer after start of chemotherapy: perspectives of children, parents and nurses.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to better understand various variables related to food intake and eating problems in children with cancer during their chemotherapy.


METHODS
Twenty-two consecutively admitted children, diagnosed with cancer and undergoing chemotherapy, participated in this study. Twenty-one of them, their parents and attending nurses participated in semi-structured interviews. Ten of the children underwent a taste acuity test, and recognition thresholds for the four basic tastes were determined.


RESULTS
The shared view of both children and parents was that altered taste was the predominant cause of the eating problems. In contrast, the nurses perceived that nausea was the most important cause of the children's eating problems. In addition, psychological aspects such as learned food aversions and negative attitudes towards hospital food were regarded as important by children, parents and nurses. The taste test showed that the patients had higher thresholds for bitter taste and made more taste recognition errors compared to controls.


CONCLUSIONS
Changes seem to exist both in the primary gustatory sense as well as in food perception in paediatric cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Single solutions, such as efforts to serve "tasty food", do not suffice alone. A more effective solution may be to combine different strategies and combinations of oral, enteral and parenteral nutrition should be considered to prevent malnutrition.
Skolin
Inger
I
Department of Clinical Sciences, Paediatrics, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden. inger.skolin@labmed.ki.se
Wahlin
Ylva Britt
YB
Broman
Daniel A
DA
Koivisto Hursti
Ulla-Kaisa
UK
Vikström Larsson
Marita
M
Hernell
Olle
O
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004435:Eating; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy*; D010372:Pediatrics; D013548:Sweden; D013649:Taste / Q000187:drug effects*