Pediatric Feeding

Pediatric feeding disorders fall on a huge spectrum, ranging anywhere from picky eating, to extreme and nutritionally-compromising food aversions. This may look like: avoiding entire food groups, colors, textures, temperatures, appearances, brands, etc. Sometimes, there are some underlying sensory integration issues that are contributing to a child’s food aversion that need to be addressed in conjunction with feeding therapy. A child may not get the same kind of sensory information from eating that others do, and this may impact things like their bite/sip size, or the rate of eating/drinking and need help processing this new information in a safe way.

Additionally, many feeding issues may also be a result of mechanical  issues with the swallow. You may hear this referred to as “dysphagia”, which is a “disorder of swallowing.” Issues can be with the oral phase of swallowing (using the lips to draw the food in, chewing the food safely, completely, and in a timely manner, and using the tongue to move the food to the back of the mouth to be swallowed), or in the “pharyngeal phase” (when the food enters the throat). Children with oral phase issues may lose their food from the front of their mouth, chew insufficiently or not at all and swallow food whole, or have food or liquid residue in their mouth after they have swallowed. Children who have pharyngeal phase issues may cough or choking while eating or drinking, swallow multiple times on one bite or sip, have a wet, “gurgly” voice after eating, or choke (when a piece of food overtly obstructs the airway) on solid foods. 

Some children, including super-preemies, medically complex children, or children with GI- or metabolic disorders may have required a feeding tube, either in the past, or currently. Others may be consuming very little, and may be getting special formula to make up the majority of their nutrition. These children will need pediatric feeding therapy to address developmentally appropriate feeding skills, including chewing and swallowing. 

A Speech Language Pathologist who specializes in pediatric feeding and swallowing disorders is the best professional to help with all of these issues. These specialists have a highly unique skill set that allows them to comprehensively understand the problem, and treat it according to each child’s unique presentation.

Whether you have a picky eater and you’re just looking for your child to happily accept a wider variety of foods, a problem feeder- who requires the keen eye of an expert to assess the full scope of the underlying problem, a child who has been diagnosed with either a pediatric feeding disorder (PFD) or oral/pharyngeal dysphagia, or a child who is currently being tube-fed, the SLP at Empire Speech and Swallow has extensive experience treating this important population, and is ready to help you with your child.

Call us now or click the “Let’s Talk” button below for more information.