Meaningful Project for Children with Cerebral Palsy

Türkiye Spastik Çocuklar Vakfı-Cerebral Palsy Türkiye and Nutricia Türkiye jointly launched the "Energy-Filled Step in Cerebral Palsy - Nutrition is Essential" project, which reached 31 children and their families in its first year, achieving positive progress in both eating and drinking skills and communication functions. The project, which concluded its first year successfully, continued in 2022 with support provided to 20 children. Within the project scope, all children reached received treatment through personalized multidisciplinary methods, and nutrition counseling was also provided to ensure the sustainable impact of treatment. In Turkey, where more than six thousand babies are diagnosed with the disease each year, nutrition and multidisciplinary treatment are of great importance. Feeding and swallowing problems, frequent vomiting, and food getting stuck in the throat during meals constitute nutrition problems that lead to prolonged meals and inadequate nutrition, causing growth and development delay in children, respiratory infections, and decreased immunity. In response to this situation, Türkiye Spastik Çocuklar Vakfı-Cerebral Palsy Türkiye and Nutricia Türkiye joined forces and launched the "Energy-Filled Step in Cerebral Palsy - Nutrition is Essential" project. In the project's first year, 31 children and their families were reached and their treatments were provided through multidisciplinary methods. Within the scope of the project, physiotherapy, dietitian services, speech and language therapy, and psychological support resulted in positive progress in communication functions, hand skills, development and growth of the children. Furthermore, a reduction was achieved in the severity of swallowing disorder and anxiety scores in children with cerebral palsy. Completed successfully in 2021 and demonstrating that proper nutrition supports the physical, mental and psychological development of children with cerebral palsy and contributes to the treatment process, the "Energy-Filled Step in Cerebral Palsy - Nutrition is Essential" project will continue in 2022, with the growth and development of 20 children evaluated this year, and personalized nutrition programs and treatments initiated for them.  

Supporting children with cerebral palsy

Türkiye Spastik Çocuklar Vakfı-Cerebral Palsy Türkiye General Director Nigar Evgin, discussing the importance of healthy and proper nutrition for children with cerebral palsy, stated: "We attach great importance to the 'Energy-Filled Step in Cerebral Palsy - Nutrition is Essential' project that we launched with Nutricia Türkiye. For each child with cerebral palsy we reach within the scope of the project, following the evaluations of the experts involved in the project, we plan holistic therapies that include Physiotherapy, Speech and Language, Psychology and Developmental Counseling, in addition to Dietitian services. With these personalized treatments, we prepare nutrition plans so that children with cerebral palsy have healthy and proper physical posture and develop their oral motor functions more rapidly."  

Nutricia Türkiye Expert Nutrition Director Cenk Kurt made the following statement on the matter:

"With the 'Energy-Filled Step in Cerebral Palsy - Nutrition is Essential' project we launched for the development of children with cerebral palsy and to enable them to lead healthier and more comfortable lives, we aim to reach a total of 51 children by the end of this year. Through treatment applied with multidisciplinary methods within the project scope, we find it very valuable to witness progress on one hand in eating and drinking skills of children with cerebral palsy and their communication with their surroundings, and on the other hand to observe results such as decreases in anxiety and hopelessness levels. On the other hand, there are approximately 96,000 children with cerebral palsy in Turkey, so we consider raising awareness on this issue to be as important as the treatment support we provide to the children we directly reach through this project. Through live broadcasts and information sessions with expert doctors on our social media channels within the project scope last year, we achieved successful results by reaching wide audiences in our goal of raising awareness in society. We will continue to focus on our awareness-raising activities this year as well."