Objective: To investigate the effect of sensory-based feeding treatment for toddlers with food refusal compared with only providing nutrition education.
Methods: Thirty-two toddlers with food refusal were randomly assigned to an intervention group or the control group. Toddlers in the intervention group received the sensory-based feeding intervention and the duration was for 1 hour for 5 days per week for 4 weeks, and then 1 hour, once a week for 8 weeks. Subjects in both the intervention and control groups received nutritional education once every 4 weeks for 12 weeks. The participants were evaluated at their entry into the study and 12 weeks later based on height, weight, behavior at mealtime using the Behavioral Pediatrics Feeding Assessment Scale (BPFAS), and sensory processing ability using the Infant/Toddler Sensory Profile.
Results: Sixteen toddlers were included in each group. Two subjects in the intervention group and four toddlers in the control group were excluded from the final analysis. Significant improvements in child or parent subscales of the BPFAS were observed in the intervention group. In contrast, there were no significant improvements in any BPFAS scores in the control group.
Conclusion: Sensory-based feeding intervention was effective for improving mealtime behavior in toddlers with food refusal. Therefore, a sensory-based feeding intervention could be considered as an intervention approach to address feeding disorders in toddlers.
Keywords: Early intervention; Feeding and eating disorder; Food refusal; Toddlers.