Feeding Management in Autistic Children During Early Childhood: A Scoping Review

Autistic children often experience eating difficulties due to sensory processing, food selectivity, and other eating behaviors. As a result, the feeding process can be particularly challenging for caregivers and professionals in healthcare and educational settings. This scoping review describes interventions that address feeding difficulties, focused on improving food acceptance and reducing challenging eating-related behavior in autistic children under 6 years. The review was conducted and reported in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA-ScR) guidelines. We searched the PubMed, Web of Science (WOS), and PsycINFO databases, as well as manually examined reference lists, to identify relevant articles. Nineteen studies were selected by two independent reviewers for inclusion in the review. Among the selected studies, a variety of effective feeding strategies were categorized into three groups: applied behavior analysis (ABA)-based interventions, a combination of ABA-based strategies with others, and emerging strategies beyond ABA. These interventions have been reported to increase the acceptance of foods and reduce challenging mealtime behaviors of autistic children. Future research should focus on developing comprehensive interventions to improve the quality of life of autistic children, their families, and their communities.