Abstract
Pediatric feeding disorders are indicated if a child demonstrates eating behavior that results in insufficient weight gain or significant nutritional deficits, or if a child displays disruptive mealtime behavior that is distressing to caregivers. Feeding disorders are observed in approximately 25–45% of the general pediatric population and often have their origin in physiological conditions (e.g., anatomical or medical difficulties). However, even with adequate management of organic issues, mealtime behavior problems are frequently maintained by environmental factors, a circumstance that necessitates a behavioral approach to their evaluation and treatment. Behavioral assessment methods are utilized in both research and clinical practice to evaluate the nature and prevalence of feeding problems as well as to assess the relationship between mealtime behavior and environmental contingencies. A variety of tools and methods have been designed to identify the mealtime behaviors of young children that are associated with poor nutritional intake. These evaluation methods allow the user to gather information regarding presenting concerns, contributing factors, and maintaining stimuli. The most common methods for evaluating mealtime behavior include caregiver interviews, observational coding systems, and standardized caregiver self-report measures. Costs and benefits of each type of assessment are described in this chapter. As well, two observational coding systems and four caregiver-report measures are described in detail, including psychometric properties and indications for their use.
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Abbreviations
- BAMBI:
-
Brief Autism Mealtime Behavior Inventory
- BPFAS:
-
Behavioral Pediatric Feeding Assessment Scale
- CEBI:
-
Children’s Eating Behavior Inventory
- DINE:
-
Dyadic Interaction Nomenclature for Eating
- GRSFS:
-
Global Rating Scale for Feeding Situations
- IFS:
-
Infant Feeding Scale
- MICS:
-
Mealtime Interaction Coding System
- MOS:
-
Mealtime Observation Schedule
- ORI-CEBI:
-
Oregon Research Institute Child Eating Behavior Inventory
- STEP:
-
Screening Tool of Feeding Problems
- T1DM:
-
Type 1 diabetes mellitus
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The author would like to acknowledge Jennifer Schneider for her assistance with this manuscript.
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Lukens, C.T. (2011). Behavioral Assessment of Pediatric Feeding Problems. In: Preedy, V., Watson, R., Martin, C. (eds) Handbook of Behavior, Food and Nutrition. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-92271-3_215
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