Children with cancer nutrition at home

ABSTRACT

The children nutrition is one of the problems that parents have to manage at home, after treatment of an oncological disease. Nutritional commitment may prolong episodes of neutropenia and compromise the effectiveness of treatments. The goals of this study were to identify the needs of parents/caregivers in the mana-gement of children/adolescents nutrition with cancer undergoing chemothera-py treatment, at home; to characterize parental strategies in the management of children's nutrition at home, after chemotherapy. A qualitative, exploratory, des-criptive and cross-sectional study was developed with eleven parents of children with cancer, who underwent chemotherapy treatment, after returning home. Data were collected through a semi-structured interview and analyzed according to Bar-din. From the analysis of content emerged the domain The Life at Home and the category Nutrition. Home Life for parents of the child with cancer presents seve-ral challenges, particularly in nutritional management, in the face of reduced food intake and the new rules imposed by the neutropenic diet. Thus, parents resort to several strategies to manage this problem: recourse to new practices in food confectionery; changes in the diet of the whole family; insistence/verbal pressure; distraction; reward after negotiation; supply a varied and nutritious diet; questio-ning/accepting the food preference; organic food. Despite appealing to the multi-plicity of strategies, the subjects of this study require the need for more structured support so that at home, they can respond to the challenges they face in their daily lives

RESUMEN

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