In a large national survey, adults who struggled with picky eating habits as children overwhelmingly said they benefitted more from positive and encouraging strategies their parents used than forceful or coercive approaches.
The research, led by a team at Duke Health, was conducted among a generation of people who struggled with food avoidance before it was identified in 2013 as a psychiatric condition called Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID).
The researchers said their findings, appearing online Nov. 11 in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, provide guidance for both families and behavioral health professionals for developing best practices to deal with extreme food aversions.
When picky eating is severe, it is diagnosed as ARFID. The condition is characterized by health problems such as weight loss and nutritional deficiencies and it can also lead to social and emotional problems when mealtimes become a source of shame, friction and/or conflict.
«It’s not surprising that positive approaches were favored, but it is surprising how overwhelming that position was among this group of adults,» said Nancy Zucker, Ph.D., professor in the Duke’s Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences. Zucker was co-senior author on the study with Guillermo Sapiro, Ph.D., professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering.
Zucker, director of the Duke Center for Eating Disorders, said the broad consensus is validation for the current treatment approach that emphasizes positive interactions: «It is robust confirmation for what had been out there in the literature and reinforces the concept that children feeling forced or pressured to eat is not helpful.»
The study was launched more than a decade ago as severe food avoidance was gaining attention and research into the disorder was limited. The online survey was aimed at adults who self-identified as current picky eaters to help understand their perceptions and experiences.
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Materials provided by Duke University Medical Center. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.