Food preferences and factors influencing food selectivity for children with autism spectrum disorders

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Abstract

Although clinicians and parents widely accept that children with autism spectrum disorder exhibit more feeding problems than their typically developing peers, little information is available concerning the characteristic food items accepted by these children or the possible factors contributing to these feeding problems. This article used an informant-based questionnaire to survey parents of children with autism spectrum disorders (N = 138) to determine: (a) the types of feeding problems their children typically exhibit, (b) the food items their children prefer, (c) the relationship of feeding problems to family eating preferences, and (d) the relationship of the diagnostic characteristics of autism to feeding behavior. Results indicated that the children preferred fewer types of food items within groups than their families; however, family food preferences appeared to influence food selection more than the diagnostic characteristics of autism.

Section snippets

Participants

Data were accessed from a database established for previous research on types of feeding problems for children with autism (Schreck et al., 2004). Responses were collected from parents or caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorders (N = 175). Children's caregivers were recruited through membership lists for local, state, and national autism societies, schools for children with autism, and from a local doctor's patient list of children diagnosed with autism.

Recruitment of participants

Types of feeding problems

Parents’ responses on the CEBI indicated that the children ate only a small variety of presented food items. According to parent reports on the CEBI, this restricted variety of accepted food items was not related to the food texture. In fact, parents stated that restricted food acceptances and refusal of most food items occurred for 72% (restricted variety) and 57% (refusal) for their children. Refusals were primarily related to food presentation (48.6%), such as using particular utensils or

Discussion

This study found that children with autism were indeed idiosyncratically selective in the type of food items they accepted. In addition, it was found that food selectivity of children with autism was related to their family's reported eating preferences. Specifically, the fewer food items the family reportedly ate—the fewer food items the child ate. However, given that relatively little variance that was explained in the regression analyses, we must assume that many other variables were

Acknowledgements

This project was partially funded from a grant to K.A. Schreck and K. Williams from the Pennsylvania State University Research Council. Thanks are given to the many families, support groups, and schools that participated in our study. Special thanks are given to the Eden School and the South Eastern school district for their cooperation with distributing questionnaires to the families of their students and to H.M. Hendy and Jill Querry for their consultation on the project.

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