Feeding problems, food refusal and selective eating

Overview & Definition

A parent says, “My child will only eat three foods.” That sentence can describe a healthy toddler in a temporary beige phase. It can also describe a child whose iron is falling, whose school lunch is a daily crisis, or whose mealtimes have become a battle that damages the whole household. Your job is to sort severity, mechanism and next step — not to hand out a label in the first minute. ^{[1] [22]}

Feeding problems in this leaf mean restricted variety, food refusal, texture avoidance or mealtime conflict that worries caregivers or threatens nutrition, growth, development or family function. The spectrum runs from common food neophobia to severe chronic restriction. PFD is the consensus framework for impaired oral intake that is not age-appropriate and is linked to dysfunction in one or more of four domains: medical, nutritional, feeding skill and psychosocial. ARFID is a DSM eating-disorder diagnosis used when avoidance or restriction causes significant nutritional, growth, psychosocial or dependence problems without the weight/shape overvaluation that defines anorexia nervosa. ^{[2] [5] [6]}

This page owns developmental and behavioural selective eating. Link the dedicated poor-feeding page for acute threat triage in neonates and unwell infants, and the faltering-growth page for full growth-algorithm detail. Do not collapse every picky eater into a specialist clinic, and do not reassure when charts are falling. ^{[24] [25]}

References30ShowHide

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