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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2014

Karen M.T. Turner ,
Matthew R. Sanders  and
Clare R. Wall
Karen M.T. Turner*
Affiliation:
University of Queensland
Matthew R. Sanders*
Affiliation:
University of Queensland
Clare R. Wall
Affiliation:
University of Queensland
*
Department of Psychiatry, The University of Queensland, Clinical Sciences Building, Herston, 4029, Australia
Department of Psychiatry, The University of Queensland, Clinical Sciences Building, Herston, 4029, Australia
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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.

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Type
Special Issue: Behaviour Therapy and Schizophrenia — Part One
Information
Behaviour Change , Volume 11 , Issue 4: Special Issue: Behaviour Therapy and Schizophrenia – Part One , December 1994 , pp. 242 - 258
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1994

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