The Relationship Between Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder in Children Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Orthorexia Nervosa in Their Mothers.
Borte Gurbuz Ozgur, Buket Canlan Ozaydin, Rabia Eren and 3 others
PMID 40244507WHAT IT FOUND
Among 104 children with autism, more maternal orthorexia symptoms were linked to more child avoidant/restrictive eating symptoms, especially fear about eating.
Taste, smell, and touch reactions were also linked. It did not show a cause.
Key findings
01Using the ORTO-11 cutoff, 60 individuals (58%) were classified as having orthorexia.
02Children of mothers classified as having orthorexia had higher total NIAS scores and higher NIAS fear subscale scores than children of mothers without orthorexia.
03Maternal orthorexia symptoms and the child's autism taste, smell, and touch reaction item were associated with child NIAS scores, but maternal orthorexia did not significantly moderate the effect of child sensory reactivity on NIAS.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study is cross-sectional, so it cannot show whether maternal orthorexia leads to child ARFID symptoms or the other way around. Mothers' psychiatric diagnoses were based on self-reports, which may underreport mental health conditions. The analysis focused only on mothers; fathers, grandparents, and siblings were not assessed. 24 children were taking psychotropic medication, which can affect appetite, sensory sensitivity, and food selectivity. 56 of the 160 recruited cases were excluded for missing data, so the analyzed sample was 104. The moderation model explained 4.9% of the variance, so the tested relationships accounted for only a small part of ARFID symptom scores.
Declared interests
The supplied text states that the work was funded by Aydın Adnan Menderes University. It does not report other conflict-of-interest declarations.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that maternal orthorexia causes child ARFID or that reducing maternal orthorexia will improve the child's eating. The study measured associations at one time point and did not test treatment.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →