Children who have difficulty chewing and swallowing or getting enough nutrients from food, or who even have extreme mealtime behaviors that negatively affect how and what they eat, can benefit from a comprehensive feeding program. This type of program can help foster the progression of important developmental feeding milestones by encouraging safe and pleasurable mealtime experiences.
Pediatric feeding disorders are complex and involve a variety of medical, psychological and behavioral factors that can include problems with cognitive and oral-motor development, difficulties with parent/caregiver-child interaction, swallowing dysfunction and aversive feeding behaviors. As a result, a multidisciplinary team approach enables more comprehensive and efficient assessment and treatment planning. It also helps ensure better-coordinated care interventions that are uniquely tailored to meet the needs of the child and family.
The Comprehensive Feeding Program team at Children’s Specialized Hospital comprises:
- child psychologists
- developmental pediatricians
- occupational therapists
- pediatric dietitians
- speech-language pathologists
- social workers
They all lend their knowledge and expertise as pediatric specialists to evaluating children with eating issues, creating effective mealtime strategies, and providing family education and training, the last of which is especially important to achieving optimal outcomes. In fact, we require that a parent be present at all therapy sessions and active in following prescribed treatment techniques.
Multidisciplinary evaluation examines all possible factors that can have an impact on a child’s feeding behavior. The speech-language pathologist, for example, assesses the muscles for feeding and swallowing, while the occupational therapist assesses the hand-to-mouth coordination for feeding using either fingers or utensils. Further, the pediatric dietitian assesses the child’s diet, while the child psychologist assesses mealtime behaviors.
The team then designs treatment strategies that can be easily implemented and maintained by the family at home. The goal is to establish feeding patterns that promote normal physical and psychological growth and development.
Children’s Specialized Hospital offers a Comprehensive Feeding Program at its Mountainside, Hamilton and Toms River locations. Our program is one of just a few in New Jersey to offer multidisciplinary evaluation and treatment for pediatric feeding disorders.
For more information on our Comprehensive Feeding Program, call 1-888-CHILDREN, ext. 5498, or email anorton@childrens-specialized.org.
Do you have patients who have feeding disorders?