Feeding Therapy
Pediatric Feeding Therapy
Helping children build healthy, positive mealtime skills
Mealtimes should be an opportunity for children to grow, connect, and enjoy new experiences, but for many families, feeding challenges can turn every meal into a source of stress. At PediaSpeech, we provide compassionate, evidence-based pediatric feeding therapy to help infants, toddlers, children, and adolescents develop safe, confident, and enjoyable eating habits.
Whether your child has difficulty chewing, swallowing, transitioning to new foods, or accepts only a limited variety of foods, our experienced feeding therapists create individualized treatment plans designed to improve feeding skills while reducing frustration for both children and caregivers.
What is pediatric feeding disorder?
According to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF), Pediatric feeding disorder is defined as “a disturbance in oral intake of nutrients, inappropriate for age, lasting for more than 2 weeks and associated with 1 or more 4 areas”:
According to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF), Pediatric feeding disorder is defined as “a disturbance in oral intake of nutrients, inappropriate for age, lasting for more than 2 weeks and associated with 1 or more 4 areas”:
Medical
Nutritional
Feeding skill
Psychosocial
Feeding disorders are diagnosed by a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) or Occupational Therapist (OT) trained in infant, toddler, and/or child feeding. There are a variety of reasons why a family would come to a trained professional for feeding therapy. An SLP or OT can target specific oral-motor skills (movement of tongue, lips, jaw, and/or cheeks) that cause difficulty with eating, help with avoidance behaviors that interrupt family-life, and create a plan to help families approach feeding in a realistic way.
Reasons to contact a feeding therapist:
- Dysphagia- A medical diagnosis
- Prolonged tube-feeding resulting in poor oral-motor skills
- Behavioral issues during feeding times (i.e., food refusal, avoidance behaviors)
- Poor weight gain
- Stressful or prolonged mealtimes
- Structural issues (i.e., Tongue-tie, genetic disorders, etc.)
- Sensory issues (difficulty with textures, sensitivity to touch, and smells of different foods)
- Choking, gagging, or vomiting during mealtime
- Limited variety of foods (“picky eating”)
- Weak oral-motor skills (limited tongue movement, poor jaw strength, etc.)
- Difficulty transitioning to ‘table foods’
- Difficulty chewing food
- Difficulty transitioning from a bottle
How can our therapists help?
We meet your child and your family where you currently are on your feeding path and partner with you and any relevant specialists to make eating and meal-times a fun, happy experience, so your child can grow to their fullest potential. Because of how specialized our therapists are in their feeding approaches, we emphasize to all families that we create an individualized plan that is catered towards the needs and goals of each child. Our therapists pull from each feeding program to utilize an effective method to treat children.
Our therapists are trained to use a variety of feeding methods and approaches, including:
Debra Beckman Oral Motor Protocol
Beckman Oral Motor is an assessment and treatment tool used to determine and treat oral motor delays and disorders.
Food Chaining
Food chaining is a feeding approach to food therapy that involves a systematic and gradual process of introducing new foods by building upon existing preferred foods.
Get Permission
The Get Permission Approach asks the adult to read the child's cues and move forward only as the child is ready.
Modified Baby-Led Weaning
Baby-Led Weaning is a global and fast growing approach used for babies to transition to eating real food.
Sequential Oral Sensory (SOS)
The SOS (Sequential Oral Sensory) feeding program, developed by Psychologist, Kay Toomey Ph.D, is a non-invasive developmental approach to feeding.
Tethered Oral Tissues (TOTs)/Tongue Ties
Tethered oral tissues (TOTs) are a category of congenital conditions that include tongue ties, lip ties, or even buccal (cheek) ties. They are characterized by an unusually tight, thick, or shortened band of tissue (frena/frenum) that connects two structures of the mouth, limits range of motion, and results in functional limitations.
Tongue Thrust/Myofunctional Therapy
Orofacial Myofunctional Disorder (i.e., “Tongue Thrust”) is a disorder of the orofacial muscle complex which includes the mouth, tongue, lips, and facial musculature.
Resources
Help Your Child Enjoy Mealtimes
Schedule a feeding evaluation
Whether your child has difficulty chewing, swallowing, transitioning to new foods, or accepts only a limited variety of foods, our experienced feeding therapists create individualized treatment plans designed to improve feeding skills while reducing frustration for both children and caregivers.