Sensory Processing Issues in Children With Eosinophilic Esophagitis

Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE) is a chronic allergic/immune condition of the esophagus that affects all ages, from infancy through adulthood. The chronic inflammation can lead to symptoms that vary with age. It is critically important to know symptoms in the infancy/toddler period because in this period, they can't express symptoms directly. The frequent symptoms seen in this period are; vomiting, refusing sucking and eating, failure to thrive, and abdominal pain. School-aged children with EoE have decreased appetite, recurrent abdominal pain, vomiting, food impaction, and dysphagia. Feeding dysfunction (feeding refusal, slowly eating, picky eater, etc..) is one of the trouble issues in this period. Children who can't experience different texture (especially solid) and tastes of foods keep on eating with their same safe feeding habits. Whereas experiences gained in early childhood period form the basis of sensory and motor development. As currently known, humans have eight senses (visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, tactile, proprioception, vestibular, and interoception). Each sense is unique, a form of information and nourishment for the nervous system. In the meantime, it is crucial to receive, interpret, and integrate all this information from all these senses at a time. Sensory integration (SI) is the term used for the brain processing information that comes through the senses. The SI begins in the womb as the fetal brain senses the movements. Childhood activities and play lead to a lot of sensory integration as the child organizes the sensations of his body and gravity, along with sight and sound. If there is a problem in any sense, such as receiving or interpreting, the SI process can be interrupted, and this may result in sensory processing disorder (SPD). It is crucial to notice SPD in childhood because SPD can affect a child's development and education (learning, reading, math, visual and auditory perception, and skilled motor tasks).

Food intake is one of the most multi-sensory daily experiences (sight, smell, taste, sounds, texture of food) for both children and adults. In children with EoE, feeding dysfunction (vomiting, food impaction, regurgitation..) can affect the oral sensory system. Even considering that all the senses work in interaction, more senses can be affected.

To date, there is no study that has investigated sensory processing issues in children with EoE. Therefore, the present study aimed to compare sensory processing between children with EoE and healthy controls and also examine the correlations between sensory processing and disease characteristics among children with EoE.