Many children with feeding difficulty have aversive feeding behaviors or learned refusal patterns around the act of eating or feeding. I often tell my students that if a child doesn't want to eat, you can't make them. By the time children come to our feeding team, many caregivers have tried multiple ways to get there kids to eat. Usually they have tried force feeding and/or letting the child get Keep Reading >>
Eosinophilic Esophagitis in Infants and Toddlers: What the Pediatric Feeding Therapist Should Know by Claire Kane Miller Ph.D.
(reprinted from The Pediatric Feeding and Dysphagia Newsletter, July 07, vol 8, no. 1, pg 6-8. ) Esophagitis (inflammation and swelling of the esophagus) is known to occur as a manifestation of gastroesophageal reflux disease. Treatment of GERD is necessary to heal injury, reduce inflammation and swelling of the esophageal mucosa, and to help relieve associated pain and discomfort Keep Reading >>
Oral Dysphagia (oral motor delay): Making recommendations for appropriate diet textures for the child with feeding difficulty
I'll give you the answer first: a child's diet texture should be appropriate for their oral skill level. Sounds so obvious right? I've seen this scenario many times... a child is referred for a feeding evaluation because of poor eating (not eating enough), choking with meals, pocketing or expelling foods, or having prolonged meal time. Parents are at their wits end, they don't know Keep Reading >>
Updates!
Hello Everyone, I just wanted to share that I have updated the workshop page and the links page if you want to take a look. Please send me any links you like and I will continue to update the page.This page will be a work in progress! Please let me know what kinds of topics you would like to see on the blog. If I can't blog about it I will find an expert who can. If Keep Reading >>
Autism Speaks: Tool Kits for Feeding Behavior and Constipation
http://www.autismspeaks.org I wanted to highlight the Autism speaks website specifically the exploring feeding tool kit and the constipation tool kit. You can go to the site, register and download them for free. Research is indicating that children with autism have more constipation, reflux, and food Keep Reading >>
Hypersensitive Gag Reflex and Pediatric Feeding Delays By Donna Scarborough Ph.D., CCC-SLP, BCS-S Miami University, Oxford, OH scarbod@muohio.edu
Introduction Historically, two clinical areas in speech pathology have tested the gag reflex response as part of a standard oral mechanism examination including: a) assessment of maximum velopharyngeal excursion (Mason & Simon, 1977; Pannbacker, 1985) b) bedside evaluations of swallowing (Daniels, McAdam & Brailey, 1997). However, due to the complexity of velar Keep Reading >>
Starting feeding therapy for the child with gagging, vomiting, G-tube feeding and poor oral intake.
I want to share some simple ideas for assessing children with feeding disorders, specifically toddlers with feeding difficulty, g-tube dependence, or food refusal/ extreme picky eating and prioritizing intervention. Think about the whole child when assessing. The oral motor pattern is the last thing you should address(I realize this is the opposite of what most of us have been Keep Reading >>
Ask the Dietician: Comments on recommending infant formulas by Sharon Wallace, RD, CSP, LDN
This post comes from my colleague Sharon, one of the dieticians on our feeding team, in reference to Martina's comment and question on how best to recommend a special formula and how to convince parents to try something new that is more expensive.-Krisi From Sharon: What I would add to Krisi's response is that there are now so many different 'hydrolyzed formulas" on the market that it Keep Reading >>