Getting kids with autism to eat

This week’s podcast combines two important post Mother’s Day topics – parents and eating.  Two recent studies have shown the promise of using parent – delivered interventions to help improve food selectivity and food aversions in kids with autism. These two behaviors can be one of the most frustrating and challenging for parents and kids, and can lead to nutritional deficiencies.  These behaviors can range from mild to severe, and previously, only inpatient or outpatient clinic based approaches seemed to have any benefit.  Now it seems that with coaching, encouragement and instruction from trained experts, parents can help their kids eat better foods.

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31056202 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30101320

New exciting findings in parent-mediated early interventions for autism

Over the holidays, new studies around early (before age 5 years) intervention were published that generated excitement in the autism community.  First, a new parent-mediated intervention called the “Social ABC’s” showed promising results.  Another intervention showed promise in south Asia, indicating that the success of parent-mediated interventions are not specific to North American countries.  Finally, data shows that most children are not having to wait for an ASD diagnosis before they receive these early intervention services.  They may not be perfect, but they are something, and this is progress.