Food Phobia Treatment | Treating Food Phobia

Most patients who come to us have already been seen by some combination of their own doctor, psychologist, gastroenterologist, throat surgeon, perhaps even a speech therapist or an occupational therapist.  Usually such a cascade of referrals simply delays resolution of the problem while the child continues to lose weight.   Some children who have not responded to treatment for food phobia (aka functional dysphagia, or sometimes psychotic food refusal) have even had a G-tube placed for long term feeds (a tube that goes through the abdominal skin directly into the stomach). Some are even admitted to psychiatric wards for long periods of time. In our experience such draconian measures are entirely unnecessary, even harmful.

Kartini Clinic's Food Phobia treatment protocol consists of a brief hospital admission in order to place a naso-gastric (NG) tube and to begin administration of anti-anxiety medication.  This allows our pediatricians to limit any immediate complications of re-feeding and allow us to teach the parents how to manage NG feeds at night.  The child is in the hospital for only a few days before being discharged to Kartini Clinic's Day Treatment Unit. Patients spend the day in the KDTU, and evenings and weekends at home (or in the Ronald McDonald House for those from outside Portland).  During the first week in the KDTU, no food is offered; the child is encouraged to engage with Kartini Clinic's food phobia treatment team and to get to know everyone in order to feel comfortable and safe while attempting to re-establish their own normal eating patterns.  During this first week or so the doctors also adjust medication and begin manual re-feeding (i.e. without an NG tube) . Parents join us at the first possible moment, as they know better than anyone what was “normal eating” for their own child before the illness struck.  They also know their own child’s likes and dislikes. At the Kartini Clinic parents become partners in helping us to do re-training of the brain that is the focus of treatment for food phobia.

For more information on our food phobia treatment protocol please see Dr.O'Toole's eating disorder blog. For questions about this or any of our other Kartini Clinic treatment programs you may submit an online request or simply call us on 503 249 8851 and ask for our intake coordinator.