My Word Speech Therapy Podcast
Sep 27, 2026 · 30 min · 12 segments
Picky eating or something more? In this episode, we sit down with dietitian Maegan, who specialises in paediatric feeding, to unpack ARFID (Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder) — a condition…
Okay, so beyond ARFID, what other eating disorders can show up in kids and how young do they usually appear?
They will show up in any
age, any
gender, any culture, anything.
Anyone really can have an eating disorder.
In terms of the age, though, it is a little bit tricky to pinpoint, but I do find typically, as I said before, ARFID is in the younger population.
Not always.
It can show up in adults too, but we do see it more in younger kids being diagnosed early anyway.
But it kind of gets missed in that toddler group, as I said earlier, sometimes.
So they're usually not diagnosed until around that, like maybe five or six.
Just to make
sure
that it's not fussy eating?
Typically, yeah.
Because it can really be disguised as fussy eating initially until, you know, there might be some more red flags
too.
But our other eating disorders such as like anorexia, eating disorder, et cetera, they do say the average onset's around 12 to 25 years old.
So a little bit of that older population.
Teenage or young adults or age group.
Yeah.
Typically.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Do you feel like eating disorders in general are becoming more common in younger kids or are we just getting better, like you said before, at that early diagnosis and recognising them?
Okay, so beyond ARFID, what other eating disorders can show up in kids and how young do they usually appear?
They will show up in any
age, any
gender, any culture, anything.
Anyone really can have an eating disorder.
In terms of the age, though, it is a little bit tricky to pinpoint, but I do find typically, as I said before, ARFID is in the younger population.
Not always.
It can show up in adults too, but we do see it more in younger kids being diagnosed early anyway.
But it kind of gets missed in that toddler group, as I said earlier, sometimes.
So they're usually not diagnosed until around that, like maybe five or six.
Just to make
sure
that it's not fussy eating?
Typically, yeah.
Because it can really be disguised as fussy eating initially until, you know, there might be some more red flags
too.
But our other eating disorders such as like anorexia, eating disorder, et cetera, they do say the average onset's around 12 to 25 years old.
So a little bit of that older population.
Teenage or young adults or age group.
Yeah.
Typically.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Do you feel like eating disorders in general are becoming more common in younger kids or are we just getting better, like you said before, at that early diagnosis and recognising them?
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