Stimulus fading in the treatment of adipsia

Abstract

Stimulus fading procedures have repeatedly been demonstrated as effective in shaping a wide variety of new behaviors. Borrowing from this body of research, the behavioral treatment of feeding disorders presents a new area of application for stimulus fading. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the ef®cacy of stimulus fading in the treatment of adipsia. Two children who ate solids, but refused all liquids, were participants in the study. Results showed that a ®ve step fading procedure starting with a spoon and thickened liquids, and ending with a cut-out-cup, was successful in establishing cup drinking skills for both children. Results of the study suggest that stimulus fading can facilitate feeding skill acquisition.

The Effects of Choice Between Nonpreferred Foods on the Food Consumption of Individuals with Food Selectivity

“…Antecedent manipulations have been encouraged especially within feeding interventions due to procedures such as fading feeding devices, altering the thickness of liquids or foods, and other stimulus fading methods possibly facilitating the consumption of non-preferred foods as well as potentially reducing problem behavior induced by consequence interventions (Babbitt, Shore, Smith, Williams, & Coe, 2001). …”

“…For example, in a study conducted by Patel, Piazza, Kelly, Ochsner, and Santana (2001) In another stimulus fading study, Babbitt et al (2001) evaluated a procedure in which a cup was attached to a spoon and moved successively closer to the bowl of the spoon to treat the liquid refusal of two children who only accepted liquids from a spoon.…”

Comorbid Conditions in Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities

“…Stimulus fading, in combination with escape extinction (EE) and/or differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA)/noncontingent reinforcement (NCR), has been used to gradually transition from liquids in a bottle to purees on a spoon (Johnson and Babbitt 1993), spoon to cup drinking via taping the spoon at varying distances to the cup , thickened liquids on spoon to cup (Babbitt et al 2001), lower to higher food textures (Shore et al 1998), liquid to baby food ), water to a nutritional caloric drink (milk with Carnation Instant Breakfast™) via blending (Patel et al 2001), chocolate to plain milk (Tiger and Hanley 2006), and preferred to nonpreferred foods via blending (Mueller et al 2004). Rivas et al (2010) evaluated fading of spoon distance from the child's lips, and found that IMB was lower at a distance compared to at the lips.…”

Spoon-to-Cup Fading as Treatment for Cup Drinking in a Child With Intestinal Failure

“…Initial treatment increased consumption of solids on a spoon but not liquids from a cup. Fading (e.g., liquid quality, Patel, Piazza, Kelly, Ochsner, & Santana, 2001; drinking utensil, Babbitt, Shore, Smith, Williams, & Coe, 2001) is an effective method of increasing consumption of liquids in children with feeding disorders. Therefore, we used spoon‐to‐cup fading (Babbitt et al, 2001) to increase consumption of liquids from a cup.…”