An assessment of food acceptance in children with autism or pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified.
The 2001 feeding snapshot still holds: half of autistic kids reject by texture, and later studies show this pickiness is chronic, sensory-driven, and worth screening early.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team ran a feeding test with autistic kids and kids with PDD-NOS. They used the Munk & Repp method: offer each food three times and record accept or reject.
They wanted to see which foods each child took or left. No norms existed, so they mapped each kid’s pattern first.
What they found
Half the kids said no to foods by texture or food group. The rest showed a steady like-or-hate pattern across items.
Because there is no typical comparison group, the authors could not label any pattern as clearly odd.
How this fits with other research
Laugeson et al. (2014) followed similar children for 20 months and found the same pickiness stayed put. Sensory over-responsivity, not repetitive routines, predicted who stayed picky.
Ellingsen et al. (2014) added normative data and showed worse feeding tied to sensory and emotional issues, but not to social-communication scores. This supports the texture link H et al. saw.
Islamoğlu et al. (2025) compared autistic kids to neurotypical peers and found far higher ARFID risk in the autism group. That case-control design gives the missing baseline H et al. asked for.
Liu et al. (2025) zoomed in on mechanism: executive dysfunction helps explain why repetitive traits drive both food seeking and food refusal. Their survey data flesh out the “why” behind the 2001 patterns.
Why it matters
You now know texture and sensory over-responsivity are core to long-lasting food refusal in autism. When you see a picky client, screen for sensory triggers first, then check for ARFID risk. Use this sensory focus to pick targets and to show insurance why feeding treatment is medically>
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Some children with autism and pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS) have been reported to have atypical feeding behavior, such as sensitivity to food texture and selective preferences for particular foods. No systematic studies of feeding behavior in this population have been published. Munk and Repp (1994) developed methods for assessing feeding problems in individuals with cognitive and physical disabilities that allow categorization of individual feeding patterns based on responses to repeated presentations of food. In this study, we systematically replicated the Munk and Repp procedures with children with autism and PDD-NOS. Thirty children, ages 3 to 14 years, were exposed to 12 food items across 6 sessions. Food acceptance, food expulsion, and disruptive behavior were recorded on a trial-by-trial basis. Approximately half of the participants exhibited patterns of food acceptance, indicating selectivity by food category or food texture. Others consistently accepted or rejected items across food categories. Whether these patterns of food acceptance are atypical remains to be determined by comparison with the feeding patterns of typically developing children and other children with developmental delays.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2001 · doi:10.1023/a:1012221026124