Feeding difficulties occur at a high rate in children with normal development and at a disproportionally high rate in children with developmental disabilities. Prolonged problematic eating, categorized as Pediatric Feeding Disorder (PFD), can result in poor physical growth and jeopardize overall health. Extant research on applied behavior analysis…

There are well-established empirically-supported treatments for paediatric feeding disorders (avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder; ARFID); however, more research is needed on their sole use, outside of specialised multidisciplinary feeding hospitals, and with older ages. Additionally, there is little research on the use of an exit criterion…

This study compared a behavioral feeding intervention with and without pre-meal sensory integration therapy (SIT) in two boys with autism spectrum disorder and severe food selectivity. For both participants, child bite and drink consumption and total intake increased to similar levels with corresponding decreases in inappropriate mealtime behavior…

Researchers conducted the present case study to address the immediate need of a student who consumed food at home and refused all food and liquids in her elementary school setting. In order to increase in-school food consumption, researchers developed a multicomponent treatment package that included antecedent adjustments (time and place food was…

Children with feeding disorders often display chewing deficits. Unfortunately, there is a paucity of research examining procedures to increase or teach chewing to children with feeding disorders. The few studies on this topic have utilized multicomponent treatments typically involving a shaping procedure. In addition, to our knowledge, studies on…

Food selectivity is a common problem among children and youth who have intellectual and developmental disabilities or autism spectrum disorders. Whereas most intervention research has been conducted under simulated conditions in clinic and hospital settings, this study evaluated teacher implemented procedures at a specialized school. The…

The current study examined the effects of bite placement with a flipped versus upright spoon on expulsion and mouth clean (product measure of swallowing) in the treatment of 3 children diagnosed with a pediatric feeding disorder and oral-motor deficits. For all 3 participants, extinction in the form of nonremoval of the spoon led to improvements…

Little is known about the characteristics of meals that serve as motivating operations (MOs) for escape behavior. In the current investigation, we showed that the distance at which a therapist held a spoon from a child's lips served as an MO for escape behavior. Based on these results, we implemented spoon distance fading, compared fading with and…

Objective: Our purpose in this study was to examine 2 treatments targeted at reducing eating in the absence of hunger in overweight and obese children. Method: Thirty-six overweight and obese 8- to 12-year-old children (58% female; mean age = 10.3 years, SD = 1.3), with high scores on eating in the absence of hunger, and their parents were…

This case study describes inter-disciplinary treatment of chronic food refusal and tube dependency in a 2-year-old female with a pediatric feeding disorder. Evidence-based behavioral components--including escape extinction (EE), differential reinforcement of alterative mealtime behavior (DRA), and stimulus fading--were introduced sequentially as…

The current study examined the rate of expulsions and mouth cleans across 3 presentation methods (upright spoon, flipped spoon, Nuk brush) for a 3-year-old girl with a feeding disorder. The participant expelled all bites presented on an upright spoon. Results showed reduced rates of expulsions and increased mouth cleans during the flipped spoon…

Prader-Willi syndrome is a multisystem neurogenetic obesity disorder with behavioral manifestations, including hyperphagia, compulsive behavior, self-injury, and mild to moderate mental retardation. In an 8-week open-label study, we evaluated adjunctive therapy with the anticonvulsant topiramate in 8 adults with Prader-Willi syndrome. Appetite was…