Feeding disorders in infants and toddlers: diagnosis and treatment

This paper begins with a review of the literature on failure to thrive and feeding disorders, highlights the confusion in the literature regarding the use of diagnostic labels to describe various feeding disorders, and points out the limitations of the diagnostic criteria of Feeding Disorder of Infancy and Early Childhood in the DSM-IV. This is followed by a clinical description, a discussion of related research, operational diagnostic criteria, and proposed treatments for six feeding disorders that can be seen in infants and toddlers. Since each of the six feeding disorders presents with different symptoms, has a different cause, and responds to different interventions, the establishment of an accurate diagnosis is most important.