The relationship between sensory sensitivity, food fussiness and food preferences in children with neurodevelopmental disorders

Abstract

Heightened sensitivity to sensory information has been associated with food fussiness in both atypical and typical development. Despite food fussiness and sensory dysfunction being reported as common concerns for children with neurodevelopmental disorders, the relationship that exists between them, and whether they differ between disorders, has yet to be established. The current study aimed to examine sensory sensitivity as a predictor of food fussiness in three different neurodevelopmental disorders, whilst controlling for comorbidity amongst these disorders. Ninety-eight caregivers of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD; n=17), Tourette Syndrome (TS; n=27), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD; n=27), and typical development (TD; n=27) were compared using parental reports of child food fussiness, food preferences and sensory sensitivity. Children with neurodevelopmental disorders were reported to have significantly higher levels of both food fussiness and sensory sensitivity, with children with ASD and TS also showing significantly less preference for fruit than children with TD. Importantly, higher levels of taste/smell sensitivity predicted food fussiness for all four groups of children. In addition, taste/smell sensitivity fully mediated the differences in food fussiness between each group of neurodevelopmental disorder compared to the TD group. The findings highlight that food fussiness is similar across these neurodevelopmental disorders despite accounting for comorbidity, and that greater sensitivity to taste/smell may explain why children with neurodevelopmental disorders are more likely to be fussy eaters.

Fussy Eating among Children and Their Parents: Associations in Parent-Child Dyads, in a Sample of Children with and without Neurodevelopmental Disorders

“…These findings are consistent with results from other studies showing that children with ND generally consume fewer fruit and vegetables than children without ND [52,53]. The results are also consistent with findings where children with ND had unhealthier diets consisting of sweet and bland foods in terms of texture and taste [26,35,36,[54][55][56]. The trend of fussy eating parents, and their lower consumption of healthier foods than for non-fussy eating parents, might be indicative of the parents' influence on children's food consumption, as some studies have pointed to fussy eating mothers adversely influencing their children's food choices [44,45,57].…”

“…Fussy eating tends to peak in early childhood and then reduce [ 21 ] but less so for children with ND [ 22 ]. Rates of fussy eating may reach 80% in children with ASD [ 23 , 24 ] and around 40% in children with ADHD [ 24 , 25 , 26 ]. Furthermore, children with ASD may be on specialized diets—for example alternative diets, eliminating dairy or gluten—in an attempt to reduce behavioral symptoms of ASD [ 27 , 28 ].…”

Sensory Profiles of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder with and without Feeding Problems: A Comparative Study in Sicilian Subjects

“…Sensory dysfunctions also seem to be related to the severity of ASD [ 5 , 14 , 19 ] and to stereotyped interests and behaviors [ 16 , 20 ]. Limited and stereotyped behaviors, interests and activities can be observed also in the feeding domain [ 21 , 22 ] and a strong sensitivity to sensory information has been associated with feeding problems, especially food fussiness, in both children with typical and atypical development [ 23 ]. However, in children with atypical development, feeding concerns still persist beyond childhood.…”

Brief Report: Sensory processing phenotypes in Phelan-McDermid Syndrome and SYNGAP1-related Intellectual Disability

“…Sensory processing differences are a common feature of many neurodevelopmental disorders (Dunn et al 2016; Smith et al 2020). For example, hyper and hypo sensitivity are common in non-syndromic Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (Robertson and Baron-Cohen 2017) and complex challenges with sensory processing have been documented in tic disorders (Soler et al 2019), Fragile X syndrome (Rais et al 2018), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (Little et al 2018) and a limited number of syndromic ASDs (Heald et al 2019).…”