Feeding Therapy

Feeding difficulties in children are frequently misdiagnosed as "behavioral" in nature. Most often though, refusing food or negative meal time behaviors, stem from an underlying structural, sensory or motor difficulty. Negative mealtime behaviors can be made significantly worse when feeding is addressed without properly identifying the underlying cause. When a behavioral approach used to address feeding challenges, rather than a neurodiversity affirming approach to feeding therapy that focuses on the sensory, motor and emotional aspects of eating, this often leads to increased mealtime stress, lack of generalization of feeding skills, trauma and is ultimately ineffective in resolving feeding difficulties.

At Speech in Motion, we believe it is critical that feeding difficulties are appropriately evaluated and that treatment plans focus on positive experiences and interactions with foods, encouraging clients to explore the foods in a playful and safe way.  

Sessions focus on increasing a child's awareness and exploration of a variety of food properties, including texture, temperature, color,  smell, appearance, shape and taste.  

We consider each client's unique learning style, sensory and motor differences and history with feeding challenges. 

Parents and caregivers are a critical part of the process and our sessions focus heavily on family involvement and home carryover.

• Poor weight gain or unintentional weight loss.
• Reoccurring choking, gagging or coughing during meals. 
• Reoccurring vomiting  
• More than once incident of nasal reflux  
• History of eating and breathing coordination problems, with ongoing respiratory issues  
• Parents reporting child as being “picky” at 2 or more well child checks  
• Inability to transition to baby food purees by 10 months of age  
• Inability to accept any table food solids by 12 months of age  
• Inability to transition from breast/bottle to a cup by 16 months of age  
• Has not weaned off baby foods by 16 months of age  
• Aversion or avoidance of all foods in specific texture or nutrition group  
• Food range of less than 20 foods, especially if foods are being dropped over time with no new foods replacing those lost  
• Infant cries and/or arches at most meals  
• Family is fighting about food and feeding (i.e. Meals are battles)  
• The child is difficult for everyone to feed.

Are you concerned about your child's feeding? Schedule a free phone consultation today to see if feeding therapy could help.