PORTUGUESE JOURNAL OF SPEECH THERAPY
RPTF | VOLUME 3 | YEAR III
Food aversion: a case study
Ana Batista | Ana Rita Fonseca | Marisa Lousada | Catarina Oliveira
ABSTRACT
Objective: The main objective of the current study is to explore, describe and evaluate changes in a child’s oral eating behavior, before and after a food aversion intervention.
Methods: Case study of the application of an intervention to food aversion to an extreme premature five years old child diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, using some stages of the programs “The fun with food” and “Just take a bite”.
Results: After five months of intervention, we observed some improvements in the child’s oral eating behavior, having evolved from being a resistant type to only having a partial food aversion. Initially the child could only eat liquids and pasty foods; however, after intervention the child was capable of eating non-mashed soup and a second dish, consisting of a variety of foods with solid and pasty textures, followed by chopped fruit.
Conclusion: We observed some improvements in the child’s eating behavior after the intervention of some stages of these programs. As a reminder, the current study focuses on a specific situation with a descriptive methodology and thus it cannot be generalized to all situations.
KEYWORDS: Food aversion, Intervention, Child, Autism Spectrum Disorder