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Review
. 2023 Mar 14;20(6):5092.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph20065092.

Food Selectivity in Children with Autism: Guidelines for Assessment and Clinical Interventions

Marco Esposito  1   2 , Paolo Mirizzi  3 , Roberta Fadda  4 , Chiara Pirollo  1 , Orlando Ricciardi  1 , Monica Mazza  2 , Marco Valenti  2   5
Affiliations
Review

Food Selectivity in Children with Autism: Guidelines for Assessment and Clinical Interventions

Marco Esposito et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Autisms Spectrum Disorders (ASD) are characterized by core symptoms (social communication and restricted and repetitive behaviors) and related comorbidities, including sensory anomalies, feeding issues, and challenging behaviors. Children with ASD experience significantly more feeding problems than their peers. In fact, parents and clinicians have to manage daily the burden of various dysfunctional behaviors of children at mealtimes (food refusal, limited variety of food, single food intake, or liquid diet). These dysfunctional behaviors at mealtime depend on different factors that are either medical/sensorial or behavioral. Consequently, a correct assessment is necessary in order to program an effective clinical intervention. The aim of this study is to provide clinicians with a guideline regarding food selectivity concerning possible explanations of the phenomenon, along with a direct/indirect assessment gathering detailed and useful information about target feeding behaviors. Finally, a description of evidence-based sensorial and behavioral strategies useful also for parent-mediated intervention is reported addressing food selectivity in children with ASD.

Keywords: applied behavior analysis; autism spectrum disorder; food selectivity; parent training; sensory processing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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