Transtorno do Espectro Autista (TEA) e hipersensibilidade alimentar: perfil nutricional e prevalência de sintomas gastrointestinais

Objective: to characterize the nutritional profile and to identify the occurrence of gastrointestinal symptoms in the presence of food hypersensibility, of children and adolescents attended at a referral center in southern Brazill. Method: Crosssectional study conducted through the application of a questionnaire in an educational center for patients with Autistic spectrum disorder in Pelotas city, RS, Brazil. Socio-demographic data anthropometric data, information on exclusion diets, nutritional follow-up and gastrointestinal symptoms of the participants were colleted. Results: Participated in these study 12 individuals, of whom the majority were male (75%), children (91, 6%), and white color (91,6%). Half of the participants were overweight (25% overweight and 25% obese), in addition to those who already presented risk of overweight (16, 7%), while only 33,3% were eutrophic. About the exclusion diets, the most prevalent were lactose (75%), casein (25%) and gluten (25%), and most students (75%) did not goy nutritional follow-up. Evaluating the presence of gastrointestinal symptoms, flatulence (33,3%) was the most reported. Conclusion: The importance of a nutritional support is highlighted for this public, since most are at risk or overweight, in addition to the presence of allergies and food intolerances. Attention should be paid to the management of exclusion diets and strategies to deal with the gastrointestinal symptoms present, since its efficacy does not yet have scientific evidence for all cases.