Feeding Therapy

Feeding Therapy

Candidates for therapy services may have one or several of the following problems:

• Poor Weight gain or weight loss
• Child eats less than 20 foods, or food preferences become fewer and fewer over time
• Child does not eat entire food group or textures, such as meats, vegetables, hard to chew foods or purees
• Frequent gagging, choking or coughing at meals that does not go away with time
• Meals at home turn into battles, and child does not eat well for others outside the home as well (i.e. daycare)
• History of difficulty coordinating breathing and eating
• Unable to transition to baby food puree by 10 months
• Unable to accept any table foods by 12 months
• Has not weaned off baby foods by 16 months
• Has not been able to learn to drink from a cup by 16 months
• Child may not have any oral intake & needs pre-feeding strategies to facilitate readiness to eat

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Goals of Feeding Therapy:

• Address issues that may negatively impact feeding such as sensory defensiveness, oral motor skills and posture/strength/coordination.
• Use of social modeling and positive reinforcement to improve mealtime behaviors.
• Use of desensitization, food play and exploration to promote willingness to interact with new foods.
• Utilizing the SOS (Sequential Oral Sensory) and/or Food Chaining approachs to feeding, we encourage children to interact with food in a non-threatening, playful way to increase comfort level with a variety of foods.
• Gradually we learn about food properties such as color, shape, texture and progress to smell, taste and consistency for chewing.
• Most important….we have fun with food as a way to learn and try new things.