ABSTRACT
The most frequent problem encountered in feeding the pre-school child is that of refusal to eat. Indeed, most pre-school children will refuse to eat some foods at some time during the first five years of life. In a survey of parents of pre-school children, 75 per cent of the parents reported refusal to eat at mealtimes as a problem (Eppright et al., 1969). For some children, however, the problem is more extreme and of longer duration. The range of foods accepted by these children is severely limited, or the overall daily intake extremely low. In a recent pilot study that we carried out with children with diabetes, the control group of pre-school children ate a mean number of thirty-five different foods during a seven-day observation period. One child within the diabetic group, however, who was described as a problem feeder, ate only two different foods during this same period.
