Caregiver Led Strategies to Malnutrition and Care-giving Among Children With Cerebral Palsy

"The PD-program is run for 3-months with 2 weeks (12 days) of nutrition education and rehabilitation sessions (NERS) conducted in each month. Each day session includes an half hour education session and a one and half hour peer led cooking session. Caretakers learn how to rehabilitate their malnourished children under the supervision and the support of caregivers who have well-nourished children (positive deviants). Children are nutritionally assessed by trained nutrition assistants or clinician on the 1st day of the NERS sessions and after three months.~During the rehabilitation sessions, caregivers learn how to prepare nutrient-rich meals for their children from locally available food identified during the positive deviance-inquiry, and actively practice good feeding and hygiene practices. Caregivers together prepare food menus based on the PD-inquiry good foods or what they can conveniently access but of equal nutritional value."

Primary caregivers of children with CP residing in the study setting are trained as parent facilitators by expert physical rehabilitation therapist . Trained parent facilitators then hold fellow caregiver workshops each lasting approximately two hours long and includes between 6-10 caregivers. To ensure quality and consistency of the workshops, the Parent Facilitators follow a detailed manual adapted from the Carer-2-Carer Programme translated into Lusoga, the local language. No expert therapists is involved in the parent facilitator training workshops. Parent facilitator training workshops involve 7 sessions that expose caregivers to understanding CP and how to improve body functioning: session1: what is CP? session2: CP as a way of life, Session 3: Getting my child's body ready to move, Session 4: Eating and drinking a healthy diet, Session 5: communication, Session 6: Play, and Session 7: Central visual impairment.

This group will receive neither the PD nor the PFT interventions but care as usual