Pediatric Prevention: Feeding Disorders

Abstract

Applied behavior analysis has the most empirical support as intervention for pediatric feeding disorders, when a child does not eat or drink a sufficient quantity or variety of food to maintain proper nutrition. Interdisciplinary collaboration is crucial for diagnosis, referral, and management of pediatric feeding disorders because the etiology is complex and multifactorial. Thus, our aim is to provide information about how to recognize a feeding disorder, to delineate the environmental variables implicated in the etiology and maintenance of feeding disorders, and to provide recommendations for prevention and intervention for feeding disorders based on the applied-behavior analytic literature.

Keywords: Applied behavior analysis; Avoidant and restrictive food intake disorder; Food refusal; Food selectivity; Pediatric feeding disorder; Pediatric prevention.