Feeding Therapy
Help your child to transition to school and support their foundational skills.
Feeding Therapy
Feeding therapy treats feeding difficulties and helps children learn how to eat, or how to eat better. As a ‘specialty within a specialty,’ it is a service that can only be conducted by a qualified therapist. Our therapists are SOS-trained practitioners.
What is Feeding Therapy?
For some children, eating is a struggle and often, the feeding difficulties they face are caused by underlying reasons, such as Sensory Processing Disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder, or motor deficits associated with neurological diagnoses. Feeding therapy can help make meal times less of a battle, be it for children who are going through a picky eating phase, or those who require support in order to learn how to eat a more varied diet.
Your child may benefit from feeding therapy if they:
- Gag, tantrum or refuse to eat at meal times.
- Often spits out or throws up food.
- Have difficulty chewing and swallowing.
- Chokes when eating.
- Have difficulty or refuse certain foods, drinks, textures or nutrition groups.
- Eat a limited variety of foods.
- Often wants different foods from the rest of the family at meal time.
What does Feeding Therapy help you with?
Assessment
A feeding therapy assessment helps to identify if your child has a feeding problem, if they are a picky eater or problem feeder, and determines the source of the difficulties.
Treatment
Based on your child’s underlying challenges, the therapist will develop a personalised therapy plan with strategies that can help make eating easier and more enjoyable for your child.
Introduction to new foods
Some children will only eat a very restricted range or variety of foods, which leads to nutritional concerns. Feeding therapy can help introduce new foods and encourages children to develop healthy eating habits.
How to eat
Some children don’t know how to chew and swallow, leading them to sometimes pocket food in their mouths and/ or choke on their food. Feeding therapy can help them to learn how to manage food in their mouth.
Sensory integration and exercises
Feeding therapy may also include sensory integration exercises that help to strengthen the muscles needed for eating, through activities like blowing bubbles, making silly faces, or using whistles.
Supports the child and family
By helping your child to overcome their eating challenges, feeding therapy can help reduce daily mealtime stress for both you and your child.
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