Assessment and treatment of rumination in a young man with autism

A young man with autism kept bringing food back up and re-chewing it. This is called rumination. The team gave him a Ring Pop lollipop all day, no matter what. Later they added a short “don’t do that” when he rumbled. Finally they took the candy away and used only the words.

They watched him during 10-minute meals. They counted each time he rumbled. They used an ABABC design. That means baseline, candy, candy plus words, then words alone.

The free lollipop cut rumbles from 12 a meal to about 4. Adding the short reprimand dropped it to almost zero. When they kept the reprimand but removed the candy, the low rate stayed. The words alone worked once the candy had already done its job.

Parents said mealtimes felt calm again. Weight loss stopped.

Breider et al. (2024) showed parent training also cuts disruptive behavior in kids with autism. Their study was bigger and used groups, but the goal was the same: stop tough behavior without drugs.

Parsons et al. (2013) and Hirota et al. (2014) reviewed pills for irritability in autism. They found weak or no effect. Wilder’s candy-plus-words approach gave a clear win with zero side effects. The papers don’t clash; they just show behavior beats meds for this one problem.

Sofronoff et al. (2004) proved short parent classes work. Wilder adds a simple trick you can teach parents in five minutes: free candy first, then fade to a quick “stop.”

You can copy this in one lunch period. Grab a highly preferred edible. Give it non-contingently during meals. If rumbles drop but still pop up, add a calm “no.” After a week, try removing the food and keep the words. Track data each bite. You just turned a dangerous medical issue into a treatable habit.