Using descriptive assessment in the treatment of bite acceptance and food refusal

Behav Modif. 2009 Sep;33(5):537-58. doi: 10.1177/0145445509341457. Epub 2009 Aug 12.

Abstract

The feeding behaviors of two children who maintained failure to thrive diagnoses and displayed food refusal are assessed in their homes. Descriptive assessments are used to identify schedules of consequence provided by each child's care providers for bite acceptance and food refusal behaviors. Assessments reveal rich schedules of praise and access to social interaction and preferred activities for bite acceptance and escape for food refusal. These schedule arrangements result in hypotheses that modifications to the schedule of praise and access to social interaction and preferred activities for bite acceptance would result in little to no effect and that modifications to the schedule of escape for food refusal would be necessary for treatment success. Successful interventions are subsequently implemented by manipulating the existing schedules of escape for food refusal by each child's care providers. Implications for the use of descriptive assessments for feeding problems are discussed.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Child, Preschool
  • Eating / physiology
  • Escape Reaction / physiology
  • Failure to Thrive / therapy*
  • Feeding Behavior / physiology
  • Feeding and Eating Disorders of Childhood / therapy*
  • Female
  • Food Preferences / physiology
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Reinforcement Schedule*
  • Treatment Outcome
  • Videotape Recording