Autism, ARFID, and Eating Disorders: Overlap and Differences
Author: Angela Bogdanova · Published: October 10, 2026 · Editorial Policy
Research cluster: Eating Disorders & Disordered Eating · Written by Artificial Sapiens
Autism and eating disorders can overlap in several clinically important ways. Some autistic people experience enduring sensory sensitivities and a narrow range of comfortable foods. Others develop avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), anorexia nervosa, binge-eating problems, or another eating disorder. One person can have autism and a separately diagnosable feeding or eating disorder, and the same outward behavior—such as eating only a few foods—can arise from different mechanisms. NIMH: eating disorders 2025 autism–ARFID meta-analysis
The central clinical question is what drives an individual's eating pattern, how it affects nutrition and daily life, and what kind of support will address those needs. Autism is a neurodevelopmental diagnosis; ARFID and anorexia nervosa are feeding/eating diagnoses. Accurate assessment examines developmental history, sensory processing, fear and anxiety, body-image concerns where present, medical conditions, and the consequences of eating difficulties.
This article explains the overlap, the key diagnostic distinctions, the evidence behind reported co-occurrence rates, practical assessment priorities, and how eating-disorder treatment can be adapted for autistic children, adolescents, and adults. It is educational material rather than a method for diagnosing an individual.
What Is the Relationship Between Autism and Eating Disorders?
Autism involves differences in social communication and interaction, restricted or repetitive patterns of behavior or interests, and frequently distinctive sensory experiences. Eating disorders describe clinically significant disturbances in feeding or eating with psychological, nutritional, medical, or functional consequences. They can share observable features—food routines, distress when meals change, selective eating, or rigid rules—while retaining different developmental histories and clinical explanations.
The relationship includes at least three patterns. A person may have autism-related eating preferences that are accommodated without an eating-disorder diagnosis. Autism-related sensory, interoceptive, or routine-based difficulties can also contribute to clinically significant ARFID. And an autistic person can develop anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, or another eating disorder for reasons that include or extend beyond neurodevelopmental characteristics. Sader et al. (2025) Loomes et al. (2025)
The overlap warrants assessment in both directions: clinicians evaluating ARFID may consider whether autism-related characteristics contribute to the clinical picture; clinicians supporting autistic people may ask whether restricted intake has crossed the threshold into nutritional deficiency, growth concerns, reliance on supplements or enteral feeding, or marked interference with daily life. Neither direction supports automatic diagnostic inference.
How Common Is ARFID Among Autistic People?
The most directly relevant pooled evidence comes from a 2025 prevalence-based meta-analysis by Sader and colleagues. Its 21 studies included 7,442 participants. Across 18 studies of ARFID samples, the pooled proportion with an autism diagnosis was 16.27% (95% confidence interval 8.64%–28.53%). Across three studies of autistic samples, the pooled ARFID proportion was 11.41% (95% confidence interval 2.89%–35.76%). Sader et al., International Journal of Eating Disorders (2025)
These numbers are research summaries, not a probability that applies to every autistic individual or every clinical setting. The ARFID-to-autism estimate showed very high between-study heterogeneity; the autism-to-ARFID estimate was based on only three studies and had a particularly wide confidence interval. Studies combined diagnostic assessments and questionnaire thresholds, with important variation in recruitment, age, population, and definitions. The review could not reliably establish matched comparison rates across settings or different underlying ARFID drivers. Sader et al. (2025), methods and limitations
A separate 2025 meta-analysis of anorexia nervosa reviewed 22 studies involving 1,172 people with anorexia and 2,747 controls. It found elevated measured autistic traits in anorexia groups and reported that approximately 29% in a subset screened above an autism-observation cutoff. That statistic concerns a positive assessment threshold in selected anorexia samples and must not be presented as a verified autism diagnosis rate for every patient with anorexia. Inal-Kaleli et al. (2025)
Autistic traits measured during malnutrition can also be difficult to interpret because starvation, anxiety, withdrawal, cognitive inflexibility, and emotional distress may affect behavior and responses. A developmental assessment that asks what was present before an eating disorder can be more informative than a single score obtained during an acute illness.
Autism, ARFID, and Anorexia Nervosa: The Core Differences
Autism-related food selectivity
Many autistic people experience particular textures, odors, tastes, food temperatures, packaging, or presentation as unusually intense or aversive. Predictability can be important: preferred brands, familiar preparation methods, consistent timing, and a reliable mealtime environment may reduce uncertainty and overload. Selective eating is a descriptive behavior. Its clinical significance depends on nutritional, developmental, medical, emotional, and functional impact.
A child who prefers a limited but nutritionally adequate range of foods, grows along an individualized trajectory, and participates in daily life may need respectful accommodations rather than an eating-disorder label. Conversely, a person whose accepted foods progressively disappear, whose intake is inadequate, or whose life becomes severely restricted merits professional evaluation even when selective eating has been present for years.
Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID)
ARFID is a recognized feeding/eating disorder in which avoidance or restriction is associated with clinically significant consequences. The common presentations involve sensory sensitivity, limited interest in eating or food, and fear of aversive consequences such as choking or vomiting. These motivations can coexist and change over time. Core assessment asks whether inadequate intake leads to significant nutritional deficiency, weight loss or faltering growth, dependence on supplemental or enteral nutrition, or marked psychosocial interference. NIMH: ARFID symptoms Sader et al. (2025)
ARFID is distinguished from restriction primarily driven by shape or weight concerns. It must also be evaluated in relation to medical illness and other conditions. When autism or another condition is present, an additional ARFID diagnosis requires a degree of eating disturbance that warrants independent clinical attention, rather than merely restating a familiar autism trait. The decision rests with clinicians who evaluate impact, history, and differential causes.
An individual may eat enough at home but be unable to attend school meals, travel, or social events because acceptable foods or safe eating conditions are unavailable. Clinically significant social impairment can matter even when body weight appears stable. Conversely, selective eating alone does not establish ARFID.
Anorexia nervosa and atypical anorexia
Anorexia nervosa typically involves restrictive intake with low body weight in the context of intense fear of weight gain or persistent behavior interfering with weight restoration, together with characteristic disturbance in body-weight or shape experience or recognition of medical seriousness. Atypical anorexia nervosa is classified under other specified feeding or eating disorder (OSFED) when the psychological features of anorexia are present despite weight remaining within or above the range traditionally associated with anorexia after significant weight loss. APA treatment guideline (2023) NIMH: anorexia
An autistic person can experience sensory limitations and independently develop fear-driven weight-control behavior. The two processes may become interwoven: a rigid meal routine may begin as sensory protection, later become tied to weight and shape, and persist after the original trigger changes. Clinical formulation needs to evaluate current motives, historical sequence, distress, behavior, and physiology rather than assigning every rule to one diagnosis.
Bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, and other presentations
Bulimia nervosa includes recurrent binge episodes and compensatory behavior directed toward influencing weight or shape, together with excessive influence of body shape or weight on self-evaluation. Binge-eating disorder involves recurrent episodes of consuming objectively large quantities with loss of control and associated distress, without the regular compensatory pattern characteristic of bulimia. Overeating, emotional eating, and preference for familiar foods are separate observations and cannot establish these diagnoses. NIMH: common eating disorders
Some autistic individuals may experience disrupted hunger awareness, irregular meals, impulsive or repetitive eating, anxiety around food, or difficulty recognizing fullness. A careful history can distinguish these experiences from a clinical binge episode, establish whether loss of control is present, and examine associated impairment. OSFED and unspecified feeding or eating disorder (UFED) remain available clinical categories when a person's presentation warrants specialist classification.
A Practical Comparison of Common Eating Presentations
Autism-related food selectivity: the main pattern may involve sensory comfort, sameness, or predictable routines. The key question is whether nutritional and functional needs are being met and whether additional distress or impairment is present.
ARFID: restriction or avoidance creates substantial nutritional, growth, supplemental-feeding, or psychosocial consequences. Sensory sensitivities, diminished interest in eating, and fear of aversive outcomes are common maintaining processes; body-shape concerns are not the central driver.
Anorexia nervosa or atypical anorexia: restriction is linked to characteristic weight/shape psychopathology or behavior interfering with weight restoration. Medical instability can occur at different body sizes, especially following substantial or rapid weight loss.
Bulimia or binge-eating disorder: episodes of binge eating, loss of control, compensatory behavior where applicable, associated distress, and the full diagnostic pattern are essential; a broad appetite pattern or repetitive eating does not establish diagnosis.
Medical feeding or swallowing disorder: pain, gastrointestinal disease, swallowing dysfunction, allergic reactions, medication effects, and other physical causes require appropriate assessment. They can coexist with autistic traits or an eating disorder. See the published English guide to choking-related eating avoidance for the separate phobia question. Choking Phobia: Fear of Choking and Eating Avoidance
Why Might Autism and Eating Difficulties Co-Occur?
Sensory processing and food characteristics
Differences in sensory processing may make certain textures, aromas, visual features, or mixed foods hard to tolerate. The relevant clinical task is to learn exactly what a person experiences and whether the environment can be modified to permit adequate nutrition. A statement such as 'the patient refuses food' can obscure discomfort, nausea, gagging, pain, or overload.
Sensory accommodations can include predictable presentation, flexible seating or lighting, familiar utensils, and collaboratively identified foods while nutritional treatment proceeds. Adaptations should be individually evaluated because the sensory profile of one autistic person does not define the needs of another.
Interoception, appetite, and everyday executive demands
Some autistic people describe difficulty recognizing internal signals of hunger, fullness, thirst, nausea, or fatigue. Daily eating can also require planning, shopping, preparation, transitions, and shifting from another activity. A restricted diet may therefore reflect multiple practical barriers rather than a single aversion. The relevance of each mechanism should be tested through clinical interviewing and functional assessment.
When food access, timing, decision-making, or preparation is difficult, collaborative routines and support can improve access to meals. This is a practical accommodation, not proof that a specific interoceptive deficit caused a disorder.
Predictability, anxiety, and change
Familiar routines can help regulate uncertainty. At the same time, a narrow and inflexible set of acceptable eating circumstances may intensify anxiety when routines are disrupted. Fear after a choking, vomiting, or other distressing event can also generate avoidance that needs its own differential assessment. Clinicians should identify whether anxiety is about a sensory event, medical consequence, social experience, or body weight and shape.
Social environment, masking, and delayed recognition
Autistic people may face misunderstandings when a caregiver or clinician interprets sensory distress as defiance, minimizes a food limitation, or assumes all eating problems belong to autism. Some people camouflage their discomfort during appointments and experience greater difficulty in less predictable settings. Others encounter substantial barriers to describing internal experience. A detailed history can make these differences visible.
A 2025 systematic qualitative review synthesized nine studies of autistic experiences of restrictive eating disorders; all studies concerned anorexia nervosa. Participants and clinicians described insufficient recognition of autism-related mechanisms and called for better-informed, individualized care. These findings illuminate lived experience and service design; they do not estimate treatment effectiveness or represent all autistic age groups. Loomes et al. (2025)
Recognizing When Eating Difficulties Need Clinical Assessment
Professional assessment is appropriate when food variety or quantity declines, meals cause substantial distress, nutritional adequacy becomes uncertain, growth or development is affected, daily functioning deteriorates, or a person uses compensatory behaviors or expresses intense weight/shape fear. Parents and clinicians should also pay attention to fatigue, dizziness, weakness, repeated vomiting, dehydration, bowel problems, changes in menstruation where applicable, and avoidance that is expanding across settings. NIMH SAHM medical management guidance
Body size is an unreliable sole indicator of risk. People at any weight can develop malnutrition, nutritional deficiency, cardiovascular complications, and consequences of rapid weight change. Growth trajectories, rate of change, vital signs, current intake, and the clinical context are more informative than an isolated BMI.
Urgent medical care is needed for fainting, severe weakness, chest pain, palpitations, confusion, inability to maintain hydration, signs of severe dehydration, or other features of medical instability. Bradycardia, low blood pressure, electrolyte abnormalities, and potential complications during nutritional rehabilitation require professional assessment. People with severe restriction should not attempt a self-managed rapid nutritional restoration plan without clinical guidance. Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (2022) NICE NG69
How Clinicians Assess Autism and an Eating Disorder Together
Developmental and eating history
A comprehensive evaluation traces sensory preferences and mealtime routines from childhood, the onset and course of new restriction, changes in food variety, appetite and fear, changes in growth or weight, and the person's own explanation of eating. Clinicians ask about weight/shape concerns without assuming they must be present, and explore choking or vomiting fears without presuming ARFID.
The timing of symptoms matters. Autistic traits usually form part of a developmental history, while eating-disorder symptoms may emerge or intensify in adolescence or adulthood. However, longstanding autism can be recognized later in life, and an eating disorder can obscure or amplify how traits appear. Good assessment considers both histories.
Nutritional and medical evaluation
Assessment may include eating pattern and nutritional variety, individual growth and weight-change history, physical examination, orthostatic and resting vital signs, and laboratory studies or an electrocardiogram when clinically indicated. A registered dietitian with eating-disorder and neurodiversity experience can identify gaps and feasible strategies without reducing care to a generic food checklist. Gastrointestinal, allergy, medication, oral-motor, and swallowing conditions may require additional medical evaluation. NICE recommendations SAHM position paper
Psychological assessment and screening
Clinicians examine loss of control, compensatory behavior, emotional distress, rigidity, anxiety, distress about shape or weight, and social interference. Screening questionnaires can help guide questions but do not replace a diagnostic interview. Autism-related communication differences, literal interpretation, and atypical expression of distress can complicate questionnaire interpretation; high or low screening scores alone should not settle whether autism or an eating disorder is present. NICE: screening tools cannot diagnose alone
Family, caregiver, school, and community perspectives may add useful context with the patient's involvement and appropriate consent. Assessment should accommodate communication preferences and avoid treating family observations as a substitute for the individual's own account. For children and adolescents, growth, developmental needs, family eating patterns, and transitions between settings deserve particular attention.
Differential Diagnosis: Questions That Change the Care Plan
ARFID versus ordinary selective eating: identify whether symptoms cause medically or developmentally important consequences or marked functional disruption. ARFID versus anorexia: ask whether avoidance is driven mainly by sensory experience, interest or fear of an aversive event, or whether weight/shape psychopathology is central. A person may have mixed mechanisms that require ongoing reassessment.
ARFID versus specific phobia: focused fear of swallowing, choking, or vomiting can overlap with restrictive eating. A clinician examines the feared stimulus, breadth of food restriction, nutritional consequences, and whether an additional ARFID formulation best captures the impairment. Physical swallowing dysfunction must also be assessed when suggested by symptoms.
Autism-related rigidity versus obsessive-compulsive disorder: preferred routines and sensory predictability may look like compulsions, yet OCD requires assessment of obsessions, compulsions, distress, and functional mechanisms. Anxiety, depression, trauma-related symptoms, and ADHD may also shape eating patterns without replacing a feeding/eating diagnosis.
Pica and rumination disorder are recognized diagnoses with distinct behavioral patterns. Orthorexia is an emerging descriptive concept about restrictive preoccupation with perceived healthy eating, rather than a separately established DSM-5-TR diagnosis. Food allergy, celiac disease, inflammatory or functional gastrointestinal disorders, swallowing disorders, medication effects, and chronic illness remain important medical considerations.
Treatment: What Is Supported by Evidence?
Treatment begins with the actual eating-disorder diagnosis, medical risk, age and developmental needs, nutrition, motivation, and communication profile. Multidisciplinary care may involve eating-disorder clinicians, primary or adolescent medicine, psychiatry when indicated, registered dietitians, occupational or speech-language professionals for relevant feeding issues, and caregivers. Autism-informed accommodations can be integrated into evidence-based eating-disorder treatment rather than made a separate substitute for needed nutritional or medical care. American Psychiatric Association guideline (2023) NICE NG69
Treatment for ARFID
ARFID care addresses inadequate intake or nutritional deficits and the mechanisms driving avoidance. Cognitive-behavioral therapy for ARFID (CBT-AR) is a structured approach that can target sensory sensitivity, limited interest, and fear of aversive consequences. Early studies are encouraging but remain smaller and less definitive than large randomized clinical-trial evidence. A 2020 child/adolescent open trial demonstrated feasibility and improvement in many participants, with randomized trials still needed. Thomas et al. (2020)
A separate adult proof-of-concept study also supports feasibility, while conclusions about the best intervention for every autistic person remain limited. Treatment can include clinically supervised nutritional rehabilitation, individually paced food learning and exposure when appropriate, problem solving around access and preparation, and family support. The plan should distinguish intolerable sensory burden from treatable fear and avoid relying on pressure, punishment, or shame. Thomas et al. (2021)
Treatment for anorexia and other eating disorders
For anorexia nervosa, treatment emphasizes medical monitoring, nutritional rehabilitation, and developmentally appropriate specialized psychological and family interventions. NICE recommends evidence-based psychological approaches tailored to age and disorder, while APA clinical guidance addresses assessment and treatment planning. For bulimia and binge-eating disorder, disorder-specific cognitive-behavioral and other established interventions may be indicated. Evidence from one eating-disorder diagnosis should not be transferred automatically to another. NICE NG69 APA clinical practice guideline
When autism co-occurs, treatment may need longer preparation for change, a more concrete communication style, attention to sensory load, and coordinated strategies across settings. Such modifications should protect the active therapeutic ingredients of care and be evaluated against nutritional, psychological, and functional outcomes.
Autism-Informed Adaptations in Clinical Care
Autism-informed practice begins by asking the person which aspects of care make participation easier. Useful possibilities include a predictable agenda, written summaries, explicit explanations of the reasons for each intervention, visual or text-based communication, fewer ambiguous metaphors, adjustments to noise and lighting, and predictable meal-support arrangements.
Clinicians can collaborate on sensory-safe meal environments, advance notice of changes, concrete plans for difficult transitions, and acceptable ways to communicate distress. Individual accommodations need periodic review to ensure they improve participation and nutritional safety; they should not become a blanket justification for leaving severe dietary restriction untreated.
The PEACE pathway in the United Kingdom offers an applied example. A 2024 qualitative study interviewed 16 multidisciplinary clinicians and reported perceived improvements in understanding, flexibility, engagement, and team practice, alongside implementation difficulties. This is valuable service-evaluation evidence, but it is not a controlled trial showing that one adaptation package has superior remission outcomes. Li et al. (2024), PEACE evaluation
A 2026 clinical-team guide by Tchanturia and colleagues integrates research, professional experience, and lived experience concerning autism, ADHD, and eating-disorder care. It supports individualized communication, sensory, emotional-regulation, and organizational adaptations. Because it is a practice resource, its recommendations should be viewed in the context of the broader and still-developing intervention literature. PEACE Plus clinical guide (2026)
Children, Adolescents, and Families
In children, concerns may emerge as growth faltering, increasingly restricted accepted foods, distress in school or family meals, difficulty with social eating, or an abrupt loss of formerly tolerated foods. Adolescence adds changing nutritional requirements, autonomy, identity development, peer expectations, and the possibility of weight/shape-related eating disorders. The diagnosis and care plan should reflect developmental context rather than applying adult assumptions.
Families can help by recording meaningful changes, making appointments, communicating sensory requirements, collaborating on predictable meals, and supporting professional treatment without turning mealtimes into contests. Medical review is important if intake, hydration, growth, or functioning is compromised. Clinicians can help caregivers distinguish necessary nutritional care from coercive demands and coordinate with schools or support services.
Family involvement can be central to evidence-based treatment for adolescent anorexia and is often useful in ARFID care, but it should be tailored to diagnosis, age, family circumstances, and patient needs. Autistic adolescents benefit when clinicians directly include their communication preferences and sources of sensory distress in the plan. NICE clinical recommendations
Autistic Adults: Recognition and Access to Care
Adults may have spent years relying on a narrow diet or complex compensatory routines before identifying them as a source of clinical concern. Eating difficulties can become more severe after moving, job changes, illness, burnout, caregiving demands, or loss of access to familiar foods. A late autism diagnosis can clarify long-standing sensory needs without eliminating the need to evaluate an accompanying eating disorder.
Service access may be complicated by waiting lists, standardized meal plans that ignore sensory barriers, atypical communication, or assumptions about who develops an eating disorder. Clear referral pathways and collaboration among medical, eating-disorder, and autism-informed services are priorities. Early adult CBT-AR research exists, but the evidence base for specific autistic adult populations is still limited. Thomas et al. (2021) Loomes et al. (2025)
Recovery and Long-Term Support
Recovery can include improved nutritional stability, increased functional freedom around food, reduced fear or distress, and greater participation in valued daily activities. The particular goal depends on the diagnosed eating disorder and the person's developmental and medical needs. For an autistic person, a successful outcome may retain stable sensory preferences and supportive routines while resolving clinically dangerous restriction or disorder-specific psychopathology.
Follow-up should account for transitions, changing environments, social pressures, emerging weight/shape concerns, and co-occurring anxiety or mood symptoms. Plans often work better when the person knows how to seek help early as intake or distress begins to worsen. Coordination across primary care, specialist services, families, and community supports reduces the chance that clinically relevant changes go unnoticed.
Limitations of the Current Evidence
Autism–ARFID prevalence studies are heterogeneous, rely on different diagnostic or screening methods, and often draw from specialized samples. The pooled co-occurrence estimates cannot establish causation or individual risk. The literature also includes comparatively little evidence across different ages, gender identities, racialized groups, geographical settings, and specific ARFID presentations. Sader et al. (2025)
Anorexia–autism studies sometimes measure autistic traits during acute illness and vary in methods. A positive observational threshold is not identical to a comprehensive neurodevelopmental diagnosis. The qualitative experience literature has highlighted service barriers but, in the 2025 synthesis, was restricted to anorexia nervosa and contained important representation gaps. Inal-Kaleli et al. (2025) Loomes et al. (2025)
The autism-adapted treatment literature contains promising clinical pathways, qualitative evaluations, and practice recommendations. Large, well-designed comparative trials are still needed to determine which adaptations improve which outcomes, for whom, and in which settings. Clinicians should distinguish established eating-disorder treatment principles from emerging evidence about the added effect of specific neurodiversity-informed changes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does autism cause eating disorders?
Autism and feeding/eating disorders can coexist, and autism-related sensory, behavioral, or communication features can influence vulnerability and clinical presentation. Existing observational findings do not establish that autism directly causes a particular eating disorder. Multiple biological, psychological, developmental, social, and medical factors may interact. Sader et al. (2025)
Is ARFID part of autism or a separate diagnosis?
ARFID is a separate recognized feeding/eating disorder. Autistic sensory or routine-based eating differences may be relevant, but an additional ARFID diagnosis requires clinically important nutritional or functional consequences and independent clinical attention. Assessment identifies both the underlying motivations and the degree of impairment.
Can an autistic person have anorexia nervosa?
Yes. Autism and anorexia nervosa can co-occur. A clinician evaluates weight/shape-related psychopathology, restrictive behavior, nutritional and medical consequences, and the person's developmental history rather than assuming that sensory preferences explain every feature. Inal-Kaleli et al. (2025)
Can ARFID occur without being underweight?
Yes. ARFID can involve nutritional deficiencies, dependence on supplementation, or marked social impairment even if weight appears stable or falls within a typical range. Appearance and BMI alone cannot establish nutritional adequacy or exclude a serious condition. NIMH
Does a limited list of safe foods mean someone has ARFID?
A narrow list is a reason to examine nutritional adequacy, distress, history, and daily impact; it is not a diagnosis by itself. A qualified clinician differentiates selective eating, ARFID, anorexia, medical feeding conditions, and other possible explanations.
Are autism screening scores reliable during an eating disorder?
They may contribute information, but results require contextual interpretation, particularly during acute malnutrition or high distress. A thorough developmental evaluation, clinical interview, collateral history when appropriate, and consideration of symptom changes over time are important. Screening instruments do not by themselves establish an autism or eating-disorder diagnosis.
How can treatment be adapted for sensory sensitivities?
Clinicians may use predictable sessions, concrete explanations, collaborative sensory accommodations, individual meal planning, and supported gradual change where clinically appropriate. Modifications should preserve nutritional and medical safety and reflect the patient's own preferences. Evidence for particular adaptation packages is still emerging. PEACE Plus guide (2026)
When should families seek urgent care?
Seek urgent medical assessment for fainting, confusion, chest symptoms, severe weakness, inability to maintain fluids, signs of dehydration, or suspected medically unstable restriction. A person who appears to have an average or higher body weight can still experience serious complications. Medical stabilization and refeeding decisions require professional supervision. SAHM guidance NICE NG69
What Should Readers Take Away?
Autism-related eating preferences, ARFID, and other eating disorders overlap in experience but have different diagnostic meanings. The safest and most effective care identifies the actual drivers of restriction or other eating behavior, assesses medical and nutritional consequences, respects sensory and communication needs, and uses diagnosis-specific evidence-based treatment. Early recognition and multidisciplinary collaboration are particularly important when autism and an eating disorder coexist.