Parental insights about supports for children with disabilities who are restricted eaters

Abstract

Introduction

Restricted eating—where children eat less than 30 foods, eliminate whole food groups, or avoid mealtimes—has far-reaching consequences beyond nutrition. Due to this complexity, parents may seek help from multiple health professionals. Although literature reports on various supports, there is limited understanding of parents' experiences. This research aims to explore parents' perspectives on supports provided to children with disabilities who have been identified as restricted eaters.

Methods

A constructivist qualitative design with reflexive inductive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews with seven parents of children with restricted eating was employed.

Consumer and Community Involvement

There was no consumer or community involvement in this study.

Findings

Parents described factors impacting access to services and a variety of supports that can be described on two axes: (a) focus of support and (b) responsiveness of support. Parents highlighted that supports on the more responsive end of the continuum—where clinicians acknowledged parental expertise, adapted strategies to individual child needs, and attended to family context—were perceived as more helpful. Conversely, rigid or prescriptive approaches were often experienced as misaligned with their child's needs, increasing parental stress and reducing perceived usefulness.

Conclusion

The findings of this study highlight a need to critically appraise standardised structured approaches. Recommendations have been made to support shifts in practice towards services that are family-centred, focussed on capacity building, and promote responsive approaches to mealtimes.