Referral patterns and patient characteristics in pediatric feeding disorder care at a multidisciplinary outpatient...

Pediatric feeding disorders (PFDs) are increasingly prevalent in the United States. Limited research has examined referral characteristics for outpatient feeding programs. This study analyzes patient referral characteristics based on referral patterns, patient demographics, and treatment interventions.

A retrospective cohort study was conducted of pediatric patients evaluated in a multidisciplinary outpatient feeding clinic at a tertiary pediatric academic institution from 2021 to 2024.

We found a significant difference in the rate of referrals to our pediatric feeding program (p < 0.001), with primary care physician (PCP) referrals as the most common. There were significant differences in the rates of comorbidities (p = 0.004) and tube feeding (p < 0.001) among the referral sources, with specialist referrals associated with the highest rates and PCP referrals associated with the lowest rates. Oral aversion was common when a feeding tube was present, regardless of tube type.

Given the high rate of referrals from PCPs, there is a significant opportunity to improve resource utilization and focus efforts on feeding disorders education for referring providers. In contrast, an accelerated pathway may need to be considered for patient referrals from specialists and neonatology due to higher comorbidities and the need for feeding tubes in this referral group. In the feeding tube category, our study also suggests that there may be no difference in the rates of aversive behaviors between different types of tubes used for enteral feeding; this may help guide provider/parent decision-making during enteral access selection.