Body composition in children with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the pattern of body composition and nutritional status in a group of prepubertal children with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy (SQCP) compared with healthy control children. STUDY DESIGN: Subjects were enrolled for this cross-sectional study from two tertiary care settings. One hundred thirty-six subjects with SQCP, 2 to 12 years of age, were evaluated by anthropometric measures, or by anthropometric and total body water (TBW) measures (n = 28), with 39 control subjects. RESULTS: Body composition and nutritional status indicators were significantly reduced in children with SQCP. Accretion of fat-free mass with age was smaller for children with SQCP. Calculation of body fat from two skin folds correlated best with measures of fat mass from TBW. CONCLUSION: Malnutrition is common in children with SQCP. Clinically available, serial anthropometric measures enable the clinician to identify malnourished children with SQCP.