Causes and Triggers

Pediatricians report they are often at a loss about what to do with these challenging patients. Food phobia of childhood, primarily seen in pre- or early pubertal children, was first described as such by Bryan Lask, a pediatric psychiatrist, and Rachel Bryant-Waugh, a psychologist, in the early 1990’s.

To my knowledge, with the exception of one article reporting work with a single young boy, food phobia has not been discussed as an entity in the American pediatric literature except under the general title “dysphagia” where it is likely to come to the attention primarily of pediatric gastroenterologists and otolaryngologists.  In the adult literature it is usually referred to as “choking phobia”. More recently Dr. Lask has chosen to refer to it again as “functional dysphagia,” although we at the Kartini Clinic for Disordered Eating prefer the more intuitive “food phobia”. In our experience, pediatricians report they are often at a loss about what to do with these challenging patients.

We are grateful to Drs. Lask and Bryant-Waugh for calling attention to this condition. Click here for the full article. In the interests of full disclosure, Dr. Lask has worked and continues to work with Kartini Clinic staff on various research projects, for which he is not compensated by Kartini Clinic.

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