Eating Disorders of Infancy and Childhood: Definition, Symptomatology, Epidemiology, and Comorbidity

This article describes a range of problem feeding and eating presentations seen in infants and children. In diagnostic terms some fall under the category of “feeding disorder,” whereas others are childhood presentations of the eating disorders “anorexia nervosa,” “bulimia nervosa,” and atypical forms of these. Several other commonly occurring presentations that are difficult to fit into existing diagnostic categories are additionally described here, including “selective eating,” “food avoidance emotional disorder,” “food phobias,” “functional dysphagia,” and “food refusal.”