Assessment of behavioral feeding difficulties in young children

Abstract

Aim: Feeding difficulties are common in typically developing children and the prevalence ranges from 25% to 45%. Although usingan assessment tool is the best approach when planning an intervention, assessment of feeding disorders is mostly accomplishedby informal parent interviews in clinical practice. This study was designed to assess the mealtime behaviours of young children with‘Feeding Difficulties’ (FD) by an instrument and to compare the results with ‘Typically Developing’ (TD) children.Material and Methods: A total of 61 children with FDs and 63 TD children aged 6-42 months were included. The Behavioral PediatricFeeding Assessment Scale (BPFAS) was completed to describe the child’s feeding behaviors and the parents’ mealtime strategies.Results:FD group had higher scores than TD group in all BPFAS subtests’ scores. The mean ‘Total Frequency Score’ was 104.6 in FDgroup whereas 72.9 in TD group (p=0.0001). The FD group had more problematic feeding behaviours in comparison to TD group. Themean ‘Total Problem Score’ of TD group was 6.1 whereas 20.1 in children with FD (p=0.0001).Conclusion: This study supports the BPFAS to be a useful and practical feeding assessment tool and also has the advantage ofincorporating parents’ feelings about child’s feeding behaviors.