Behavioural Parent Training Versus Dietary Education in the Treatment of Children with Persistent Feeding Difficulties

Abstract

This controlled treatment-outcome study compared the effects of behavioural parent training (BPT) and standard dietary education (SDE) on the mealtime interaction, feeding behaviour, nutritional status, and adjustment of children with feeding disorders. Participants were 20 children (aged between 18 months and five years) with persistent feeding difficulties, and their families. Children underwent initial screening (involving medical assessment, behavioural observation of mealtime interaction, nutritional intake analysis, and self-report measures of parent and child adjustment) and were randomly assigned to BPT or SDE. Results indicated that children in both treatment conditions showed improvement on the child behaviour measures (e.g. food refusal, disruptive behaviour during mealtimes) at home and in mealtime observations in the clinic. Children in both conditions also showed an increase in the variety of foods sampled by follow-up. Following treatment, mothers who received BPT showed more positive mother–child interaction during mealtimes, and both parents were more satisfied with treatment than parents in SDE. Mothers in both conditions showed slight elevations in mood at posttest and follow-up, and increased marital satisfaction at posttest (which decreased by follow-up). All other treatment effects were maintained at a three- to four-month follow-up assessment.

A Review of Parenting Programs in Developing Countries: Opportunities and Challenges for Preventing Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties in Children

“…Several meta-analyses document the effectiveness of parenting programs across a range of parental and child outcomes (Barlow et al 2002;Kaminski et al 2008;Lundahl et al 2006;Serketich and Dumas 1996) such as autism (McConachie and Diggle 2007), developmental disabilities (Plant and Sanders 2007), anxiety disorders (Cartwright-Hatton et al 2011), feeding and sleeping problems (Turner et al 1994;Werle et al 1993), drug and alcohol problems (Battistich et al 2000), anti-social behavior (Scott et al 2001), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (Hoath and Sanders 2002) and recurrent pain syndromes . Parenting programs have also been shown to improve couple interaction quality (Cowan et al 2011), parenting competence and stress (Gross et al 2003;Nixon et al 2003) and maternal depression (Sanders and McFarland 2000).…”

Post-traumatic feeding disorders in infancy: Behaviors predicting treatment outcome

“…Although various behavioral techniques have been used to treat various feeding problems (Babbitt et al, 1994;Blackman & Nelson, 1985, 1987Handen, Mandell & Russo, 1986;Luiselli, 1988Luiselli, , 1993Luiselli, , 1994Luiselli & Gleason, 1987;Riordan, Iwata, Finney, Wohl, & Stanley, 1984;Turner, Sanders, & Wall, 1994;Werle, Murphy, & Budd, 1993), the technique that is believed to be most helpful to treat PTFD is flooding (Chatoor & Benoit, 1996). A brief review of the theory and techniques of behavior therapy is useful to provide a framework from which to understand why flooding may be the technique of choice to treat PTFD.…”

Mealtime duration in problem and non-problem eaters

“…While some studies have made clear links between age and meal length (Turner et al, 1994 1996). The current study found age to influence both observed and parent-reported meal 326 duration, thus further research should be directed towards clarifying this complex relationship 327 between the developmental stage of the child and meal length.…”

“…The MOS is an established method of coding that has been shown to reliably 183 differentiate children with and without feeding difficulties (Sanders, Patel, et al, 1993) and to 184 capture post-intervention change (Turner, Sanders, & Wall, 1994). The MOS has good inter-185 rater reliability (mean k: parent codes=.83, child codes=.80; Sanders, Patel, et al, 1993 …”