Interdisciplinary Treatment for Pediatric Feeding Disorders

Abstract

For children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), food selectivity (i.e., accepting a very limited range of foods, refusing specific foods, and/or excessively favoring specific foods) is the most common form of feeding difficulty. Feeding problems that often co-occur or contribute to food selectivity include problematic behaviors at mealtime like aggression and self-injury, oral-motor development problems that can make self-feeding, chewing, or swallowing difficult and gastrointestinal problems where ingesting food is associated with physical pain. This chapter outlines the recommended components for interdisciplinary assessment and treatment of feeding disorders for children with ASD, including what disciplines are represented and how they interact, evidence-based assessment, as well as the treatment components that team members use and extend to parents and caregivers. It closes by placing interdisciplinary treatment of feeding disorders for children with ASD in context, assessing the evidence base, and discussing co-occurring issues that are often considered during the course of treatment for feeding problems. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)