Click here: Full text pdf now available!
“In-home programme fixes kids’ eating problems in a couple weeks”
Author perspectives: “This is the most excited I have ever been about an article. I love the colourful pictures of real food the kids actually ate to show real life and easily relatable proof of the results. I also love the graphs joining the two worlds of single-case and group data. In the graphs, you can still see each kid’s individual results instead of being lumped into the group. You can also see how big the change was for each kid. This was three years of my own hands-on personal direct close hard work with each kid and family in their homes, rather than a large hospital with lots of teams and supervising staff. It is an entirely different special experience, especially seeing the huge impact on the families’ lives (seeing the kids eat with their siblings and family, at restaurants, at school). Finally, it was quite an experience getting this into a paediatric journal to try to reach a broader audience.”
What is it about?
Feeding problems affect most areas of a kid’s life and development (toileting, sleep, learning). This should be resolved as young as possible, but proper treatment is only in a few special hospitals in the USA. This paper presents this treatment done in-home overseas. The kids made great improvements in their eating and drinking. Their parents kept it up themselves at home. The kids continued to eat/drink better after 2 years.
Why is it important?
Proper feeding treatment can have rippling benefits, preventing risks to kids and waste of critical time and money. This is the first group treatment paper done in-home and without other treatments or disciplines. The results were many and real, like actual amount of food eaten in grams, actual pictures of the range of foods, and actual meals we watched and recorded. Kids were taught how to chew, feed themselves, and drink from a cup. This is the first controlled consecutive case series for feeding, and the research quality is high.
Aim
Paediatric feeding disorders are normally managed by specialist clinics. We examined whether treatment gains were maintained when trained parents continued the programme at home and during meals out.
Methods
This controlled consecutive case series recruited 26 children (22 boys) with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder, from a private paediatric feeding disorders clinic in New South Wales, Australia. Their mean age was six (2‐13) years. All had severe feeding problems and mealtime skill deficits and most had autism and developmental delays or intellectual disabilities. The children received intensive, individualised, behaviour‐analytic treatment for 11 (6‐21.5) days and the parents were trained to continue it at home. The primary treatment outcomes included the range and amount of food eaten and mealtime behaviour.
Results
The children met all of the therapeutic goals agreed at the treatment outset. They ate a mean of 92 different foods and improved how they ate, drank and behaved during mealtimes. The mean differences before and after treatment were clinically and statistically significant and the gains were maintained during follow up at a mean of 2.3 years. Parental satisfaction and treatment acceptability were high.
Conclusion
Specially trained parents successfully continued paediatric eating disorder treatment at home and maintained treatment gains.
About the author https://www.paediatricfeedingintl.com/about-us/
RECLAIM THE JOY OF MEALTIME
For more information on the process & to request an intake consultation appointment:
Paediatric Feeding International provides in-home intensive services and remote consultation for feeding/ARFID and tube weaning using well-established empirically-supported treatments for paediatric feeding disorders. We are dedicated to delivering quality services and supporting families through their journey. With our guidance and expertise, families can feel assured that their child receives quality evidence-based care. A process previously exclusive to a few specific locations in the United States, Dr. Tessa Taylor (ClinPsych) now travels in order to bring these advanced techniques across the world.
- Backed by 50 years of evidence
- Intensive, In-home
- Tailored for your child and family
- Can work quickly (in days, weeks)*
- Gradual tube reduction
- Wide variety of healthy foods
- Teaches independent skills (utensils, cup drinking, chewing, medication)
- Direct, high level of parent support and help
- Meals away from home and with other caregivers
- Funding available (NDIS, Medicare)*
*individual results can vary; *subject to individual eligibility, contact agencies directly