There are the “feeding disorders” of little kids, and the “eating disorders” of older children and adults.

Keith Williams believes that, with the right motivation for change, it would be possible to use taste exposure to treat selective eating at any age. The greatest obstacle is that most selective eaters—and their parents—view their condition as incurable, and therefore do not really believe there is any point in treatment. Their reluctance in the

But in these vast quantities, the milk leaves children anemic (because calcium in the cow’s milk blocks the absorption of iron) and badly constipated, not to mention at risk for obesity from the excess calories. The constipation and the fact that the milk is so filling leave the children with little appetite for proper meals. As a result, they fail

Eating well is a skill. We learn it. Or not. It’s something we can work on at any age.

Research suggests, however, that even quite mild verbal coercion changes how a child views food.

“learning by senses, learning by playing.” Some days, the children might go berry-picking; other times, they make bread, chop fruit for fruit salad, or draw pictures of vegetables. Most of the time, they are hardly aware they are learning at all.

If our food habits are learned, they can also be relearned.

When a dietician hears the first inklings of “change talk,” says Pearson, he should not hurry the person on to the practicalities of dieting or an exercise program, but try to capture the desire for change in such a way that the patient can hear what she has said. The dietician’s job is not to persuade, but to strengthen someone’s own desire for

There has been a real sea change in clinical thinking about anorexia over the past two decades. The prevailing view among those who treat it now is that it is a largely heritable condition of the brain rather than a symptom of having an overbearing mother or seeing too many ads featuring thin models.