What is Feeding Therapy?

In adults, feeding difficulties are usually a result of a brain injury or a disease affecting the nervous system and making breathing, chewing, and swallowing difficult. With children, severe, picky eating can result from sensory aversion to smells and textures. Children of all ages might have difficulty gaining weight because of difficulty tolerating solids and liquids. Some infants have difficulty latching on the breast to feed properly. These issues can be complicated and will need to be addressed by knowledgeable occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists, in collaboration with dentists, lactation consultants, otolaryngologists (ENTs), and gastroenterologists to decide the best course of action for the child. Our therapists here at Dynamic can guide your caregivers and provide treatment for feeding-related dysfunctions.

What are the benefits of feeding therapy?

Mealtimes are an important part of bonding and spending time with your loved ones. However, that can be an overall hindrance to the experience when your child is exhibiting avoidance behaviors or is confronting muscle impairments in the mouth. The following are some benefits of seeing a therapist for your child's feeding difficulties:

• Improve sensory tolerance to various food textures
• Develop chewing skills
• Reduce avoidance behaviors
• Can help your child be a more varied eater
• Can help you get to the root of why your child might be avoiding certain foods
• Reduce anxiety around mealtimes

What should I expect?

Working as a team, you and your therapist will create a personalized treatment plan for your child and provide strategies for eating at home. At Dynamic, you should expect to have our therapists:

• Teach oral skills such as chewing, sipping, and swallowing while eating and drinking
• Increase oral strength and range of motion
• Assist in broadening the types of food your child eats so that they can eat a more healthy, balanced diet
• Improve associations with food
• Help your child gain self-feeding independence
• Provide feeding strategies and general advice for eating at home

Eating is a developmental milestone for your child. Regardless of your child's age, our therapists will help you create goals to reach a stage of independent eating so that mealtimes can be a more enjoyable experience.

At Dynamic, we believe that therapy is the most efficient way to regain independence and generate developmental skills. Schedule an appointment today to get started.

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