The Treatment of Feeding Disorders in Pre-School Aged Children (0-6 Years of Age)
Chiara Baldo, Sara Rinaldi
Among 25% of children with typical development and up to 80% of children with atypical development develop some form of feeding disorder (Manikam, 2000; Bryant-Waugh, 2010). A systematic review of literature was conducted and the aim was to find scientific evidence in the treatment of pre-school children with feeding disorders. The eligibility criteria of the studies were determined a priori and the PubMed, Cochrane Library, PsychINFO, SpeechBITE databases were interrogated: only seven studies published between 1994 and 2019 met the established criteria and were included in the review. An analysis of the methodological quality and external validity of each study was conducted. The results show the effectiveness of indirect intervention on the child: the involvement of parents is shown to be transversally effective in the various studies proposed. This type of intervention engages the parents, the key players in the development of the child’s food preferences and in the establishment /modification of food rigidity and selectivity, strengthening the image they have of themselves as caregivers (Koivisto Hursti, 1999). Some studies (Sharp, 2016; 2019) show the effectiveness of adopting practical manuals that can be used by both parents and therapists. The definition of objectives appears to be a common limitation of the various studies analysed in this paper, this indicates how complex it still is to identify specific objectives and appropriate management in the context of feeding disorders. The small number of selected articles did not enable us to reach solid conclusions regarding a single effective strategy in the treatment of these disorders but still allowed us to draw useful conclusions regarding the clinician’s work. It would be desirable to continue doing research in the rehabilitation field with the aim of comparing different rehabilitation approaches and experimenting the generalisability of the results in the Italian context too.
Keywords
Food selectivity, Food refusal, ARFID, Parent training, Treatment.