Feeding Issues Associated with the Autism Spectrum Disorders

Feeding issues are prevalent in young children. Feeding will be defined here as the process of in‐ gesting food and drink in social environments where such activities take place. Estimates of problems may range from 13 to 50% in typically developing children, but may be as high as 80% in children with developmental disabilities [1-7]. In 1 to 10% of these children problems may be‐ come chronic and may affect their health and development [1, 8]. Anatomical, metabolic, gastro‐ intestinal, motor or sensory problems may be the cause of or may contribute to some of these feeding problems [8]. A global medical assessment is necessary when feeding problems persist, because some medical symptoms may not be recognized as associated with feeding at first sight, such as asthma. Even if the association remains unclear, a high prevalence of asthmatic children, particularly with nocturnal asthma, have gastro-esophageal reflux (GER) [9]. Both feeding and eating, the processing of food and drink in the mouth and swallowing, are also known as activi‐ ties of daily living (ADL) and studies examining the specific problems of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), found that 46 to 89% have feeding problems [10-18].