What is Feeding Therapy?
Feeding therapy is preformed by a trained occupational or speech therapist. Their techniques are used to help infants and children who have difficulties with sucking, chewing, eating, and/or swallowing. Depending on your child’s roadblocks with mealtime, whether they be sensory, motor, or a combination of both, your therapist will devise an approach for working on addressing the issue at the core in order to help your child’s ability to reach feeding milestones and eat age-appropriate meals.
Who Are Feeding Therapists?
Feeding therapists are speech-language pathologist or occupational therapists that have received advanced training in feeding/eating and swallowing. A feeding therapist will support your child and family in enjoying mealtimes by assessing and treating:
- Oral motor skills (awareness, strength, co-ordination, movement and endurance of the mouth; jaw, tongue, cheeks and lips)
- Optimal positioning for your child
- Current mealtime practices/environment
- Strategies to expand a limited food repertoire
- Sensory system involvement/challenges (sensitives to textures, flavors, etc)
Why Might My Child Need Feeding Therapy?
A feeding evaluation could be beneficial for your child if:
- Mealtimes are challenging, long, or stressful
- Your child eats approximately 15 foods or less
- Your child only eats from 1-2 foods groups
- Your child has difficulty transitioning through age-appropriate foods (e.g purees to table foods)
- Your child chokes or vomits during meals
- Your child is experiencing poor weight gain
- Your child is weaning from tube feedings
A feeding evaluation could be beneficial for your newborn if:
- Feedings are long (more than 30min per feed)
- Your baby is fussy or shows discomfort during breast or bottle feedings (e.g arches back, cries)
- Your baby is messy eater (milk leaks out of corners of mouth) during breast or bottle feedings
- Your baby is having difficulty transitioning from breast to bottle
- Your baby falls asleep quickly during most feedings
- Your baby is experiencing poor weight gain
Typical Feeding Developmental Milestones
- 0-3 months
- Oral reflexes are present for sucking and swallowing (e.g rooting, suck-swallow)
- Tongue is cupped for backward movement of liquid
- Cheeks, lips, tongue, jaw, and palate function as a unit
- 3-6 months
- Sucking becomes more active instead of involuntary
- Gag reflex is moving back on the tongue/is slightly less sensitive
- Much chew becomes active
- 7-9 months
- Mixed movement of the tongue is seen: in/out, up/down, left/right
- Upper lip is active to clear food off of a spoon
- Cup drinking is introduced
- Straw drinking is established by 9 months
- 10-12 months
- Coordination is improved for drinking
- Mature chew pattern is developing
- Gag reflex has moved back towards the pharyngeal wall
- 13-15 months
- Jaw, lips, and tongue begin to word independently from one another
- Can maintain continuous suck during cup drinking
- Jaw is stronger for biting and chewing
- 16-18 months
- Good control of liquid
- Controlled bite is seen without head movement
- 19-24 months
- Tongue is used to clean lips
- Can straw drink for long sequences
- Can chew with mouth closed
- Can chew meat completely
- Diagonal/rotary chew is present
- 25-36 months
- Skills are refined for “adult” patterns
Lactation Services
What is a lactation counselor?
A lactation counselor/consultant is a health care professional that has received specialized training and certification to help support and guide individuals who choose to breast/chest feed. Most commonly, lactation counselors offer support with those who are being challenged with painful nipples, milk supply, feeding positions, and more.
Why Might I Need a Lactation Counselor/Red Flags During Breastfeeding:
- Breast pain/tenderness or infections
- Damaged or sore nipples
- Baby only nurses on one side
- Low milk supply
- Milk oversupply
- Inadequate weight gain
- Baby is fussy at the breast
- Baby always falls asleep at the breast
- Baby is a noisy eater (e.g clicking sounds are observed during feeds)
- Baby will not attempt to latch to the breast
Blogs
At Chicago Pediatric Therapy we offer numerous resources to help parents and their children. We have several blogs readily available that give parents tips, tricks, facts and milestones. Check out a couple of our most popular Feeding Therapy blogs.
Contact us
If you are ready to discuss feeding or any other therapy options for your child and are interested in learning more about our services, call us today at 773-672-7775 or email us at info@cptwc.com. We’d be happy to give you more information and help schedule an assessment.