>> so we've got some nuts. emily: healthy snack food for some kids can be a serious stress test for others. take this strawberry.
nutritional diet for picky eaters, those automatic judgments, just one sign of an eating disorder now diagnosed as avoidant restrictive food intak
disorder or arfid. their limited range of foods is so narrow that when they do actually increase even by one or two foods, it feels like a big jump. some kids can fit the list of foods they're willing to eat on an index card.
or suddenly refuse to eat anything solid. >> we see a lot of kids with, um young adults actually, with pretty severe presentations. emily: here at mass general hospital, researchers are trying to figure out what triggers arfid, and better ways to treat
it. >> we think that there are real biological basis of these problems. emily: their research focuses on three different causes, hypersensitivity to taste, texture and smell. others describe a traumatic
experience, like choking. and some kids simply have a chronic lack of interest, losing weight because they fail to eat. >> arfid is quite different because we don't think about weight and shape concerns in these kids. these are often kids
who are saying to me, god i wish i could gain weight. help me get healthy again. and we don't see that in our typical eating disorder patients. emily: the research team estimates arfid affects about 1.5%
of adolescents, nearly the same as anorexia and twice that of bulimia. it also appears to be more common in boys than girls. >> if somebody's really not able to push the bounds and have more foods than they're comfortable having, um and it's actually
getting in the way for them, that's probably the line for arfid. emily: some of these kids actually skip birthday parties because they're so worried about what's on the menu. but again, the research team says this eating disorder is
treatable, and want to hear from parents who may recognize some of these symptoms in their kids. for more details about this
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