Clinical usefulness of blenderized food for selenium deficiency in pediatric patients with severe motor and intellectual disabilities.

INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to assess the preventive or therapeutic effects of blenderized food (BF) on selenium deficiency in pediatric patients with severe motor and intellectual disabilities (SMID).

METHODS: The medical records of all 40 consecutive pediatric patients with SMID who underwent nutritional assessment were retrospectively reviewed and compared between two groups: the enteral formula (EF) group and the BF group fed with BF providing more than 10% of total caloric intake. Next, for the selenium-deficient patients who were newly started on blenderized tube feeds after the first nutritional assessment, improvement of selenium deficiency and change of dietary contents were assessed.

RESULTS: The BF group patients had a significantly lower prevalence of selenium deficiency and higher serum selenium levels than the EF group patients. In all 7 selenium-deficient patients who started blenderized tube feeds after the first nutritional assessment, serum selenium levels were significantly increased at the second nutritional assessment, even though total selenium intake, selenium intake by EF, and total caloric intake did not differ significantly, and, in fact, caloric intake was significantly decreased by EF.

CONCLUSION: Combined feeding of BFs can be useful for prevention and therapy of selenium deficiency in pediatric SMID patients.