Psychometric Properties of the Infant and Child Feeding Questionnaire.

OBJECTIVES: To report the updated psychometric properties of a child feeding questionnaire and to report the psychometric properties of a screening tool developed from this questionnaire. A secondary objective was to consider if items from a behavior checklist embedded within the Infant and Child Feeding Questionnaire may be useful in making referrals for feeding problems. STUDY DESIGN: Caregivers of children younger than the age of 4 years with pediatric feeding disorders (as defined by International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, criteria) were recruited from 2 outpatient clinics. A comparison group with no feeding problems was recruited during well child checks from community clinics. Caregivers completed a demographic questionnaire and a child feeding questionnaire. Exploratory and confirmatory analyses identified questionnaire items that differentiated groups. Remaining items were summed and area under the curve, sensitivity, and specificity values were calculated to describe the resulting screening tool. ORs of behaviors from the embedded behavior checklist were calculated to determine whether specific behaviors could be useful for referrals. RESULTS: Responses of 989 caregivers (pediatric feeding disorders, n = 331; no feeding problems, n = 650) were obtained. Six questions of the child feeding questionnaire differentiated groups accounting for 60% of variance. Sensitivity (73%) and specificity (93%) were greater when any 2 or more of these 6 items was endorsed. Three items of the embedded feeding behaviors checklist show promise for referrals to specific provider disciplines. CONCLUSIONS: A pediatric feeding disorders screening tool consisting of 6 questions from a child feeding questionnaire is psychometrically sound. Use of this tool may expedite referrals for treatment. Further study of the embedded behavior checklist may be useful for clinical referrals.

Preliminary Study of a Caregiver-based Infant and Child Feeding and Swallowing Screening Tool.

OBJECTIVES: The Infant and Child Feeding Questionnaire (ICFQ) was created to facilitate early detection of feeding and swallowing problems. This is achieved by promoting effective communication between caregivers and health care providers resulting in referral for evaluation and treatment of feeding and swallowing problems by specialists. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine whether items from the ICFQ could be used to screen for differences between children with known feeding problems (FP) and without known feeding problems (NFP). METHODS: Caregivers of children ages 36 months or younger with FP and NFP were recruited to complete the ICFQ and demographic questions. T tests were completed to compare demographic characteristics of the research groups. Responses to ICFQ items were analyzed using receiver operating characteristic analysis and odds ratios to determine whether questionnaire items distinguished between study groups. RESULTS: Sixty-four caregivers of children with FP and 57 caregivers of NFP children were recruited. Three participants in the NFP group did not meet inclusion criteria and were excluded from analysis. A combination of 4 ICFQ questions distinguished between groups (receiver operating characteristic = 0.974). Significant odds ratios were also found for 9 feeding behaviors that distinguished between groups. CONCLUSIONS: A subset of items from the ICFQ showed promise for distinguishing FP from NFP groups. Future work will expand the regional representation of the participant samples and obtain equal representation of participants across all age-adjusted questionnaires to determine whether the same combination of ICFQ items continues to distinguish between FP and NFP groups.