Behavioral Treatment of Feeding Disorders in Children

Abstract

Behavioral feeding problems in children are defined as those disorders which lead to the lack of ingestion of a nutritionally or developmentally appropriate diet in children who are not prevented from eating for medical reasons. Onset of the problems usually occurs between 6 months and 5 years of age, with many problems traced to the 6- to 24- month time period. Feeding problems can occur in the normally developing child, but are often found in children with known medical conditions or in the developmentally disabled population. Feeding problems in children can be some of the most troublesome to parents as their ability to feed their child and to have him or her grow normally is used as an index of their effectiveness as parents. Due to the absence of a standard classification system for childhood feeding disorders, incidence and prevalence rates very widely. The prevalence of feeding disorders has been estimated as high as 25% to 35% in younger children (Palmer & Horn, 1978). Dahl (1987) suggests that 1% to 2% of infants and children have eating problems severe enough to result in impaired growth. Surveying a nonclinical sample of 413 parents of infants and toddlers in regard to behavioral problems, O’Brien (1996) found that mealtime difficulties was rated 8th on a list of 20 daily hassles encountered in parenting, and Refusing to Eat Food, an item on the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory, was endorsed by nearly 33% of parents responding to the survey. In the same sample, when asked about their needs, 35% indicated a need for further information about nutrition and feeding, and 60% needed additional information about behavior problems. These data, from a nonclinical sample, suggest that feeding problems are common and that parents are in need of information about nutrition and feeding practices and about behavioral problems in general.KeywordsFeeding DisorderParent TrainingJuvenile Rheumatoid ArthritisApply Behavior AnalysisFeeding ProblemThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.