iEAT 2.0 Open Trial
Condition: Gastrointestinal Disorders
MeSH terms: Gastrointestinal Diseases; Digestive System Diseases
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The purpose of this study is to learn more about the eating behaviors of children with
      chronic food refusal. Specifically, investigator's aim to see how the integrated Eating
      Aversion Treatment (iEAT) may affect a child's food consumption. The manual is a structured
      multidisciplinary treatment, including a psychologist and dietitian with consultation from a
      speech-language pathologist. The treatment is designed to increase the volume of foods a
      child eats and decrease their reliance on a feeding tube or formula. The manual includes
      informational handouts, data collection forms, and instructions to guide the increase in
      feeding demands while reducing reliance on formula to meet a child's nutritional needs.

      Children with chronic food refusal will participate in this study at the Marcus Autism
      Center. All children who enroll will receive the iEAT treatment. This involves 10 bi-weekly
      sessions that last approximately one hour, over the course of 5 months and a 1 month
      follow-up visit. Therefore, the study will last a total of 6 months.
    

Detailed description: 
      This study seeks to further the development of iEAT by including participants that
      demonstrated improvements in a previously conducted pilot study, and finalize the treatment
      manual to include the standardized decision rules to increase feeding demands, further
      integrate the multidisciplinary team (nutrition and speech pathology), and include
      supplementary sessions to better address individual treatment needs.

      Investigators propose to enroll participants with chronic food refusal and formula or feeding
      tube dependence. Treatment will involve 10 biweekly outpatient appointments and 1 follow-up
      appointment of about 1 hour in length. Assessment and treatment will involve a
      multidisciplinary team including behavioral psychology, speech pathology and nutrition.
      Target behaviors including grams consumed, percent dependence on formula/feeding tube, and
      the clinical global impression scale, which will be assessed during a meal observation, 3-day
      food record, and evaluation with the dietitian and independent evaluator. Participants will
      be assessed pre-treatment, mid-treatment, and post-treatment and complete a one month
      follow-up to assess long term effects.
    

Intervention name(s): iEAT Program
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): The iEAT Program is a six-month long behavioral intervention consisting of 10 biweekly outpatient appointments of about 1 hour in length. The iEAT manual will guide behavioral intervention targeting severe feeding disorders and will involve some combination of escape extinction, reinforcement, and antecedent manipulation of food presentation to lessen the aversive quality of the meal.
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: Nutrition; Behavioral