Evaluation of Empirical Pretreatment Assessments for Developing Treatments for Packing in Pediatric Feeding Disorders.

A significant problem among children with feeding disorders is packing (i.e., pocketing or holding accepted food in the mouth), which could hinder successful treatment. Previous research has identified effective treatments to reduce packing; however, an assessment model to guide treatment decisions is lacking. In the present study, we used a multielement design to identify conditions under which low levels of packing occurred for 4 children with feeding disorders. Results were used to empirically inform treatment selection to decrease packing for 3 children. Assessments indicated that packing was related to texture, food preference, or response effort and subsequently informed individualized treatments, which led to decreased levels of packing. Results suggest that this model may be useful in the design of treatment packages for children who engage in packing at clinically problematic levels. © Association for Behavior Analysis International 2019.