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Children with ASD posed challenges, adaptations to family mealtime
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Mealtime in families of children with autism spectrum disorders caused increased stress for the mothers and altered the family dynamic, according to the results of a narrative-based study.
Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often create feeding challenges for their families, according to study background information. These challenges can include selective eating, prolonged meal duration and distraught behaviors that can disrupt family engagement during mealtime.
The study included six families with children with ASD who were aged 2 to 7 years. Researchers interviewed the mothers on feeding experiences and challenges two to three times during the course of the study.
Analysis of the narratives indicated four common concerns among the families, including the inability to eat together, adaption of routines, maternal isolation in meal planning and changes in sibling roles.
All of the mothers said although their preference would be to eat together as a family, their children with ASD often refused to sit at the dinner table or their disruptive behaviors caused family members to eat elsewhere. However, different techniques such as allowing the child to smell or play with their food altered the routines of the families and allowed them to eat together for short periods of time.
The researchers also found that the mothers often felt isolated and stressed by their challenges to plan separate meals to ensure the nutrition of their children with ASD.
“Mothers expressed the stress in providing nutritious food for their children and the barriers spouses, relatives and friends presented in the process of even simply the lack of support,” the researchers wrote.
Despite this lack of a support system, the mothers also described a change in the role of siblings who modeled and encouraged good behavior from their brother or sister with ASD. However, some mothers also said these modeling behaviors sometimes caused the siblings to become pickier and eat worse foods themselves.
“Practitioners working with a child with ASD and feeding challenges need to remember the child is a part of a unique family unit and shared mealtime experiences,” the researchers wrote. “A family-centered approach addressing the child’s feeding challenges (eg, nutrition, selective eating, atypical behaviors and mealtime participation) will support success and generalization of intervention into the child and family daily practices.”
Disclosure: The study was partially funded by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
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