Happy New Year 2023!

Let me start with a sincere thank you to everyone who has followed along with this blog from the beginning. I realized as I was updating some of the pages this morning that this is the 24th year of the whole endeavor which started as a paper newsletter that I typed, printed, and mailed out with the first issue dated July 1999. Oh, how I remember the days of typing this up, going to Kinko’s to print, and then enlisting my husband to address and stamp folded copies. Those original publications (from July 1999 – December 2010) are still available on the home page. I turned it into a blog in 2012. Wow, I feel old.

If you want to look at the original version, go here.

http://pediatricfeedingnews.com/the-pediatric-feeding-dysphagia-newsletter/

I started this blog as a young clinician with the ambition and intention of pulling together the many different fields of study and information needed to understand what children with feeding problems and their caregivers were going through. I knew then that it was much more than just a therapy problem and that a team of professionals working together to remediate feeding problems was needed in most cases.

Much has changed since 1999 in our world, our field of pediatric feeding disorders, and in my own life and professional practice. As I reflect on 29 years in this fascinating area, we know more about helping children who struggle to eat but the journey is not over and we still have a long way to go. I want to thank my many mentors on this journey (Peggy Eicher, Cathy Fox, Cis Manno, Mary Lou Kerwin, Paul Hyman, Katherine Freeman, Suzanne Evans Morris, Marsha Dunn Klein, Sue Thoyre, & Donna Scarborough) to name a few. I hope this blog serves as a helpful resource for clinicians and families and offers a hub of information to draw from.

I admit that I have neglected this blog in the last year or so as I have focused on my doctoral studies but as I near the end (target date for finishing December 2023!!!), I am recommitting to this forum which has brought me so much joy and connection from sharing the information I have learned along the way with you.

I am still a full-time clinician working primarily on the UNC feeding team with a sprinkling of acute care and MBSS thrown into the mix.

I have joined the feeding flock and look forward to working on research and learning from this talented group of professionals!

I have updated my workshop page (all virtual) from 2021 to 2023- not sure how I missed a whole year. I offer my CAN-EAT Approach workshop almost monthly through motivations inc. and attendees managed to find the dates even though I didn’t list them here :), Thank you! I hope to add some smaller 2 hour workshops on specific topics in the near future.

I continue to teach master students about pediatric feeding and dysphagia (UNC-Chapel Hill, Yeshiva University, and soon to be at UNC-Greensboro) and love mentoring the next generation of clinicians! I have thought about offering my master’s level class as a refresher for clinicians . It’s a 10 module course moving from the basics to intervention (please email me if you might be interested).

I am currently working on a scoping review of gagging in pediatric literature with the assistance of my wonderful advisors. My plan is to study hypersensitive gagging for my dissertation project which as we know is a common problem with our kids that is not well studied or understood. I will keep you posted!

This has ran longer than I expected so I will wrap up. Wishing everyone a Happy New Year,

Sincerely, Krisi

Keep in touch: feedingnewsletter@gmail.com