Eating is a complex process involving a lot of motor coordination and sensory skills. Not only does your child have to coordinate the movements and his or her lips, tongue, and teeth, but her or she must be able to tolerate and interact with the different food textures. If your child has difficulty with any of these areas, mealtimes may not be very pleasant, and your child’s overall health and nutrition may be impacted.

 

At the Pediatric Learning Center, Inc. our pediatric speech-language pathologists, and occupational therapists work together as the feeding therapy team.  We offer oral-motor, sensory and behavioral based evaluations, and therapy for children with feeding issues. 

 

Our therapists will complete assessments and provide individual recommendations for your child in order to address the following concerns:  
 

• Refusing food

• Refusing specific food textures (e.g. all purees, all crunchy foods, etc.)

• Difficulties with oral motor coordination 

• Failure to thrive

• Tantrums during mealtimes

• Having difficulty self-feeding or transitioning to self-feeding with a spoon or fork

• Exhibiting any signs of swallowing issues

• Coughing, choking, gagging, or vomiting during meals

• Difficulty controlling secretions

• "Noisy" sounding during or after meals

• Mealtimes taking a long time due to slow chewing skills

• Child only eats small amounts

• Overstuffing his or her mouth

• Weight loss or lack of weight gain

• Currently has a G-tube or NG-tube
   

If you are concerned about your child’s oral-motor and feeding skills and have noticed that your child is choking, coughing or gagging while eating and drinking, please talk to your child’s pediatrician and speech-language pathologist as soon as possible.