Nancy Zucker’s Feeling and Body Investigators (FBI)—ARFID Division is a playful, developmentally appropriate treatment designed for children with ARFID. Although it was originally developed for young children, its principles and activities are also being adapted and used with older children and tweens.

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Children are invited to become “Feeling and Body Investigators” who approach their bodies with curiosity rather than fear. Through stories, games, experiments, and a fun cast of characters—including Georgia the Gut Growler, Harold the Hunger Pain, and Thirsty Theo—they learn to notice, identify, and understand sensations such as hunger, fullness, nausea, a racing heart, butterflies in the stomach, tightness in the throat, and changes in energy. Each sensation is treated as a clue that provides useful information about what the body may need.

 

Treatment includes gradual interoceptive exposures, in which children safely practise experiencing different physical sensations and observing what happens. For example, activities may produce changes in breathing, heart rate, stomach sensations, or feelings of hunger and fullness. Children learn that these sensations may be uncomfortable but are not necessarily dangerous and do not need to be avoided. They also practise connecting each sensation with its possible meaning and an appropriate response—for example, recognizing hunger as a signal to eat or anxiety as a signal to seek support and use a coping strategy.

 

Sensory and food-related activities are introduced in a similarly curious, investigative manner. Rather than pressuring the child to like a food, the child is encouraged to explore its appearance, smell, texture, taste, and the sensations it creates in the body. This helps reduce fear and rigidity while increasing the child’s willingness to approach unfamiliar or uncomfortable experiences.

Parents participate in the program and learn how to help their child notice and describe sensations without becoming alarmed or reinforcing avoidance. They support the child in completing investigations, tolerating manageable discomfort, and responding to the body’s signals in helpful ways.

 

The overall goals are to reduce fear of physical sensations, improve awareness of hunger and fullness, increase tolerance of discomfort and uncertainty, strengthen emotional and bodily self-regulation, and help the child approach eating with greater flexibility and confidence.