Treatment of food selectivity in a child with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder through parent teleconsultation

Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) is a diagnosis for those who display impaired and distressing eating behaviors and symptoms. Behavioral feeding strategies have been shown to be effective at improving food variety and decrease problematic mealtime behaviors in children and adolescents. This study examined the use of teleconsultation for the implementation of a behavioral feeding intervention to increase food variety with a child with avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. A series of changing criterion designs across foods and food groups was used. Results show that there was an increase in the frequency of bites of nonpreferred foods consumed following successive increases in the criteria. High levels of acceptability of the intervention and technology process were also noted. Additionally, high levels of interobserver agreement, high levels of consultant procedural integrity, and high levels of parent treatment integrity were observed.