|
Dr Gillian HarrisDr Gillian Harris (Phd, MSc, Ba, AFBPsS, C.Psychol) has carried out research into infant and child feeding behaviour and appetite regulation at the University of Birmingham, School of Psychology for the past 40 years. She was also a Consultant Paediatric Clinical Psychologist for 30 years, and led a feeding clinic at The Children’s Hospital, Birmingham, where she worked with infants and children who were food averse.
Her specific research and clinical interest is the development of food acceptance and rejection in early infancy and early childhood, and the effect of early experience on later food preferences. She has written around 100 published papers, articles and book chapters on these areas, and been awarded multiple research grants to support her research. Past research studies have led to changes in the management of nutrition in children with specific illnesses (e.g. children with cystic fibrosis) or have led to the development of interventions, or parent information, for children undergoing specific treatments, (e.g. desensitizing and oral stimulation for children who are tube–fed in the first year of life), or for children with Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). Her publications, and invited talks, have led to changes internationally, in the assessment and treatment of children with eating problems, and in weaning practices generally. |
She has also frequently run, or contributed to, workshops or study days for groups of health professionals, or Special Interest Groups, both nationally and internationally, in which her research findings and research models are disseminated. Dr Harris also runs training days for health professionals organized by the National Autistic Society. She is also a member of the Infant and Toddler Forum, a website devoted to giving evidence-based guidance to both health professionals and parents; her factsheets on food acceptance and refusal remain extremely popular (www.infantandtoddlerforum.org) and have been downloaded in their tens of thousands. Dr Harris is a trustee for the charity ARFID Awareness and has contributed to some of their resources.
Her media work has been extensive. Most notably an ITV documentary ‘My child won’t eat’, which centred on her work as a clinician with children with food refusal, was shown in June 2008. It attracted approximately 6 million viewers, and is still being shown around the world. She has also appeared on ‘Food Unwrapped’, (Channel 4), advised on ‘Doctor in the House’ (BBC 2), spoken on ‘The Food Chain’ & ‘CrowdScience’ (BBC World Service), and on the Today programme (Radio 4).
Dr Harris set up a training and clinical service in collaboration with one of the leading experts in the field of ARFID and autism (Dr Elizabeth Shea). This service has now been successfully running for ten years. Dr Harris also continues to specialize in research and interventions with children who are food averse and have very restricted diets; help for these children is given by training workshops or therapy via the Birmingham Food Refusal Service.
Dr Harris and Dr Shea collaborated in writing the very popular book for parents of children and young people with ARFID, ‘ Food refusal and avoidant eating in children’ (2018)
Her media work has been extensive. Most notably an ITV documentary ‘My child won’t eat’, which centred on her work as a clinician with children with food refusal, was shown in June 2008. It attracted approximately 6 million viewers, and is still being shown around the world. She has also appeared on ‘Food Unwrapped’, (Channel 4), advised on ‘Doctor in the House’ (BBC 2), spoken on ‘The Food Chain’ & ‘CrowdScience’ (BBC World Service), and on the Today programme (Radio 4).
Dr Harris set up a training and clinical service in collaboration with one of the leading experts in the field of ARFID and autism (Dr Elizabeth Shea). This service has now been successfully running for ten years. Dr Harris also continues to specialize in research and interventions with children who are food averse and have very restricted diets; help for these children is given by training workshops or therapy via the Birmingham Food Refusal Service.
Dr Harris and Dr Shea collaborated in writing the very popular book for parents of children and young people with ARFID, ‘ Food refusal and avoidant eating in children’ (2018)
