Eating Behavior in Autism Spectrum Disorders

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neural developmental disorder that affects one in 68 people worldwide, according to Attwood and Croonenbroeck. Parents and educators of autistic children often notice picky eating behavior in the children. To investigate what peculiarities there are in the eating behavior of autistic people, 18 autistic adults were interviewed and the parents of 30 autistic minors were surveyed with a questionnaire. The study came to the conclusion that there are very large individual differences in the eating behavior of autistic people. However, the peculiarities in eating behavior are almost always directly attributable to the special perception of autistic people. Oversensitivity and undersensitivity of all five senses are noticeable in eating behavior.