Three mildly malnourished children with cystic fibrosis and their parents participated in a behavioral group-treatment program that focused on promoting and maintaining increased calorie consumption. Treatment included nutritional education, gradually increasing calorie goals, contingency management, and relaxation training, and was evaluated in a multiple baseline design across four meals. Children's calorie intake increased across meals, and total calorie intake was 32% to 60% above baseline at posttreatment. Increased calorie consumption was maintained at the 96-week follow-up (2 years posttreatment). The children's growth rates in weight and height were greater during the 2 years following treatment than the year prior to treatment. Increases in pace of eating and calories consumed per minute were also observed 1 year posttreatment. These findings replicated and extended earlier research supporting the efficacy of behavioral intervention in the treatment of malnutrition in children with cystic fibrosis.

To increase calorie consumption of 5 mildly malnourished children with cystic fibrosis (CF), intervention was implemented in multiple baseline fashion across snack and three meals. Intervention involved nutritional education establishing gradually increasing calories goals, teaching parents contingency management strategies, and a reward system for achieving calorie goals. Following 6 treatment sessions, the children's calorie intake increased across meals and total calorie intake was 25 to 43% above baseline. The calorie increase was maintained at 9-month follow-up. Significant changes in weight and height were made during treatment and the year following intervention. The results suggest that the long-term oral intake of children with CF can be modified by a short-term behavioral intervention.

Study objective. To investigate calorie intake, behavioral eating styles, and parent perception of eating behavior of preschool children with cystic fibrosis (CF) compared with healthy peers. Design. A two group comparison study. Setting. A clinical sample of 32 preschool children with CF (aged 2 to 5 years) and a community sample of 29 healthy peers matched for age and socioeconomic status. Measurements and main results. The two groups did not differ on the total number of calories consumed per day or the percentage of calories derived form fat. The CF sample achieved a significantly higher percent of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of energy (95% RDA) than the control group (84% RDA), P < .05, but did not achieve the CF dietary recommendations of 120% RDA. On measures of behavioral eating style, the CF sample had significantly longer meals (24.63 min) than the control group (18.57 min), P < .01, but did not differ on pace of eating or calories consumed per bite. On a measure of parent report of mealtime behavior, parents of the CF sample identified mealtime behaviors of "dawdles" and "refuses food" as more problematic (M = .93) than parents of control children (M = .22), P < .05. Conclusions. While preschool children with CF consume as much or more than healthy peers, they are not achieving the CF dietary recommendations. Furthermore, there appear to be behavioral differences in eating and parent perception of CF children's eating that may contribute to the failure to achieve dietary recommendations.

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Many competitive sportsmen in this country regularly use pollen extract as a dietary supplement in the belief that it can lead to an improvement in performance. We have investigated the effects of a six-week course of pollen extract administration on a variety of physiological parameters in a group (n = 20) of adolescent swimmers. At the time of the study, all subjects were training on a daily basis. During the course of the study, maximum oxygen uptake increased in both the treatment group and the placebo group, no difference between the response of the two groups being observed. Vital capacity showed a significant increase in the treatment group, but not in the placebo group. The results indicate that no positive benefit was obtained from the use of pollen supplementation. However, the number of training days missed due to upper respiratory tract infections was much less in the pollen treatment group (4 days) than in the placebo group (27 days). In a study of longer duration, this difference could lead to an improved performance by the pollen treatment group due to fewer interruptions to training.