Picky eating is common in childhood, but feeding challenges exist along a continuum, from developmentally typical food preferences and neophobia to clinically significant pediatric feeding disorder (PFD) and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID). Dietitians must be able to recognize where a child may fall along this continuum, provide practical and responsive nutrition guidance, and identify when further evaluation or interdisciplinary care is warranted.

This interactive virtual session will help dietitians distinguish common picky eating from more complex feeding concerns using developmental expectations, nutrition assessment findings, functional impairment, and relevant clinical red flags. The presentation will introduce the consensus framework for pediatric feeding disorder, including its medical, nutritional, feeding-skill, and psychosocial domains, while clarifying how PFD differs from picky eating and ARFID.

Attendees will explore evidence-informed, family-centered strategies for reducing mealtime pressure, supporting food exploration, preserving nutritional adequacy, and promoting responsive caregiver-child feeding relationships. The session will also address the influence of sensory differences, appetite, developmental skills, family dynamics, culture, food access, and caregiver stress on a child’s eating.

The session will combine didactic instruction, brief case examples, and practical application, followed by audience questions and discussion. This topic is relevant to dietitians across clinical, community, school, public-health, and private-practice settings because families frequently seek nutrition guidance for selective eating. Providing appropriate early support, and recognizing when referral is needed, can reduce caregiver distress, protect nutritional status, and facilitate timely interdisciplinary intervention.

Register here!