Greetings from Helsinki, where your ESPGHAN podcast team have taken the opportunity to buttonhole for interviews as many learnèd, skilled, and experienced paediatric gastroenterologists and hepatologists as possible!

We haven’t forgotten the allied professions, mind you; this note accompanies for you an encounter recorded at the 2025 ESPGHAN Annual Meeting with Dr Kathryn Bradley, a clinical psychologist expert in Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID).

Her work in “picky eating” is not her only credential in paediatric gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition: she is the mother of a child with total colonic aganglionosis, a lived experience on which she draws in counselling and treatment of children who, unlike most of us, cannot eat and drink unthinkingly... and of their families.

In this podcast, she addresses these three questions:

1. What are the key signs that distinguish ARFID from typical “picky eating” or other eating disorders?

2. How does ARFID affect a child's physical and mental health, and what are the long-term consequences if children and families are left without support?

3. What evidence-based approaches can be used to support a child/family with ARFID and which professionals should be involved?

In addressing these questions, she builds on two articles — gateways into resources to be consulted as caregivers encounter ARFID:

LiteratureBryant-Waugh R et al. Towards an evidence-based out-patient care pathway for children and young people with avoidant restrictive food intake disorder.J Behav Cogn Ther 2021; 31:15–26. (Non-indexed article)

Sanchez-Cerezo J et al. What do we know about the epidemiology of avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder in children and adolescents? A systematic review of the literature.Eur Eat Disord Rev 2023 Mar; 31(2):226–246.DOI: 10.1002/erv.2964 | Epub: 2022 Dec 16 | PMID: 36527163 | PMCID: PMC10108140

Dr. Bradley´s favourite song: Oasis - She is electric 

ESPGHAN favourite Songs can be found on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0YIHKjxITLEm9XNyHyypTo