Feeding and Swallowing

Feeding and Swallowing Therapy:

When children are picky eaters or have difficulty controlling, coordinating, and/or swallowing foods and liquids, they may have underlying sensory, oral-motor, or medical issues that are contributing to their eating difficulties. Look out for any of these “red flags” while your child is learning how to eat and expand their diet:

• Narrow food selection (ie. They only eat certain types of food such as fruit and chicken nuggets)
• Aversion to certain types of food
• Poor weight gain
• Breathing difficulty while feeding
• Difficulty controlling their saliva
• Feeding times that last longer than 30 minutes
• Refusing foods of specific textures or consistencies
• Pocketing foods in sides of mouth
• Dehydration
• Crying/fussing during mealtimes
• Frequent coughing and/or wet vocal quality after swallowing
• Loss of food/liquid from front of mouth while chewing
• Frequent gagging

If your child is exhibiting any of these “red flags,” call today for a comprehensive feeding and swallowing evaluation! The evaluation consists of looking at which types of foods your child prefers and is able to eat, creating a starting point for therapy. After establishing a treatment plan, our team utilizes a play-based approach to feeding that gradually expands their diet and strengthens their facial muscles. We emphasize the importance of parent education to ensure they are implementing new strategies at home during mealtimes.

Depending on your child’s specific needs, the speech-language pathologist will incorporate both oral motor exercises and/or sensory techniques. An oral motor approach will focus on strengthening and coordinating the muscles of the face, tongue, lips, and/or jaw to improve overall swallow functioning. On the other hand, a sensory approach works on expanding a child’s diet due to preferring foods of particular textures, tastes, colors, and/or temperatures. This approach involves introducing new foods through the systematic process of exposing, exploring, and expanding various foods.