OSFED

Criteria for Diagnosis

To be diagnosed as having OSFED a person must present with feeding and/or eating behaviours that result in significant distress and impairment of day to day functioning, and do not meet the full criteria for any other feeding or eating disorder.

Some examples of eating or feeding disorders that would fit the OSFED criteria are:

• Night eating syndrome – Recurrent distressful episodes of eating either late at night or during the night, upon waking.
• PICA – Persistent eating of non-nutritive substances such as ice, sawdust, cotton wool in place of normal food and whereby the behaviour is not a culturally supported practice. Pica often occurs during pregnancy (but stops) and with other mental health disorders.
• Rumination Disorder – Repeated regurgitation of food which can be re-chewed, re-swallowed or spat out. This would not be due to any medical complication, such as a gastro-intestinal condition, and can also occur with other mental health disorders.
• ARFID – Avoidant/Restrictive food intake disorder. Previously known as SED – selective eating disorder, where food is limited based upon its appearance, taste, smell or texture and can be a result of a past negative experience with that particular food.
• Atypical forms of Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa – for example where the behaviours occur much less frequently or BMI is maintained at an acceptable level.