FOR CHILDREN
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Understanding Eating and Feeding
Eating and feeding skills are crucial for a child’s overall health and development. These skills involve the ability to chew and swallow food safely, self-feed, and enjoy a variety of foods and textures. Issues with eating and feeding can affect a child’s nutrition, growth, and social interactions during mealtimes.
Common Eating and Feeding Issues
Early identification of eating and feeding issues is essential for timely intervention. Common signs include:
- Difficulty Chewing: Trouble chewing different textures of food or preferring only soft foods.
- Swallowing Problems: Coughing, choking, or gagging during meals, frequent spit-ups, or a fear of swallowing.
- Picky Eating: Limited variety in diet, refusing to try new foods, or having strong preferences for certain textures or flavors.
- Feeding Aversion: Negative reactions to food, refusal to eat, or distress during mealtimes.
- Self-Feeding Difficulties: Trouble using utensils, spilling food frequently, or relying on others for feeding.
- Weight and Growth Concerns: Poor weight gain, frequent illness, or signs of malnutrition.
Our Approach to Treatment
Our treatment plans are personalized to address the unique needs of each child, using evidence-based techniques to enhance eating and feeding skills.
Personalized Therapy Plans: Each child receives a customized therapy plan tailored to their specific eating and feeding challenges. These plans include a variety of strategies to improve chewing, swallowing, self-feeding, and overall mealtime behaviours.
Oral-Motor Exercises: To enhance chewing and swallowing skills, we use oral-motor exercises that strengthen the muscles involved in eating. These exercises help improve coordination and efficiency in handling different food textures.
Sensory Integration: For children with sensory aversions to certain foods, we incorporate sensory integration techniques to gradually introduce new textures and flavours in a supportive and non-stressful way.
Feeding Techniques: We teach specific feeding techniques to help children learn to self-feed effectively and safely. This includes the use of adaptive utensils and strategies to encourage independence during mealtimes.
Parental Guidance and Support: We provide parents with practical advice and support to manage feeding difficulties at home. This includes creating structured mealtime routines, offering a variety of foods, and addressing behavioural issues related to eating.
Take The First Step
Take the first step towards improving your child’s eating and feeding skills.
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