Eating is the most complex act our bodies perform. It involves every organ in our body!
The Importance of an Evaluation Team
After a lot of trial and error and years of experience, it is truly in the best interest of your child and your family to provide you with an evaluation that truly gets to the root of the issues. A child who is extremely selective usually has a larger issue with their body. Only 8% of children have feeding issues due to behavior alone.
That means over 90% of children who are extremely selective have an issue going on in their body.
Our job is to be a detective and get to the root cause. Otherwise, we're just putting bandaids on the issue.
Selective eating is merely a symptom of their underlying issues.
In order to treat the whole child, we must have all the information to not only get an accurate picture, but to develop a plan that will best help your child.
That means over 90% of children who are extremely selective have an issue going on in their body.
Our job is to be a detective and get to the root cause. Otherwise, we're just putting bandaids on the issue.
Selective eating is merely a symptom of their underlying issues.
In order to treat the whole child, we must have all the information to not only get an accurate picture, but to develop a plan that will best help your child.
The Speech Pathologist
Imagine if someone gave you a banana, but with the skin on and you were told to chew and swallow it. When you told them no, you can't, they insisted, "it's good, just eat it." You would start changing the topic, throwing it on the floor, giving it to the dog-- anything to not have to eat it!
When kids cannot physically manage the food, we start to see behaviors. |
The speech pathologist's role is to look at the oral motor structure and function and evaluate the movements of the tongue lips, cheeks and jaw. We are able to determine if the oral structure is adequate for eating, or if there is a physical reason the child is struggling to eat. We can determine what textures a child is able to tolerate safely without choking. We also include a quick language screening to make sure there are no issues. Why are they having trouble chewing? Is their tongue functioning appropriately? Is their body in a stable position and able to engage in eating? Our job is to determine what the child can physically manage and tolerate. |
The Occupational Therapist
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The Occupational therapists role is to evaluate the child's sensory and fine motor needs. Eating is a complete sensory experience. The tactile (touch), visual, taste, kinesthetic (movement), auditory (hearing) systems of our body play a vital role in the way we eat. Occupational therapists play a key role in your feeding team, as they assess the child’s sensory, motor, feeding, strength and environmental factors which affect the child’s mealtimes. Since most of the behaviors that occur during feeding are “sensory driven”, occupational therapists are trained professionals in sensory processing and can implement a plan to ensure your child reaches their full potential while meeting their feeding goals. Each child's sensory needs vary and thus we need to determine what works best for them so that we can help them to regulate and be comfortable and secure when they sit down for a meal. This is vital for mealtime success! |
Imagine you were told to eat a meal in in a room with sounds as loud as bombs were going off, where you felt you were floating in space. For a child with hypersensitive auditory system and poor positioning, this alone can make eating impossible!
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Dietician
Imagine feeling ill every time you ate blueberries. Now tell me that after awhile, you decide you would rather not eat then have blueberries.
Food can help us, or hurt us. It is the job of the dietician to determine if there are any foods hurting your child and preventing us from making progress. |
Our integrative dietitian is a crucial element that needs to be on any pediatric feeding team! With at home Biomedical testing, our dietitian can customize a supplement regimen based on your child's needs to make sure they are able to THRIVE.
Food is supposed to be enjoyable and nourishing four our bodies, but what happens if you have a picky eater or a problem feeder? What happens if food is causing you to be sick? How do you make sure your child is getting optimal nutrition for proper growth and brain function? Food sensitivities, gastrointestinal microbe imbalance, and micronutrient deficiency can impact your child on so many different levels. Food plays a vital role in our everyday life. It can help us or hurt us, it is the dietitians jobs to help your child flourish so they can continue to make progress! They will determine the optimal and most nutritious foods to help your child grow and THRIVE. |
YOU!
You, that's right, YOU!
You are THE MOST important person on the team!
You are your child's anchor, their comfort, their biggest cheerleader and best advocate.
You are the key to the program we develop being successful.
It takes commitment to learn, to be open minded, and to follow through with recommendations.
We are on the same team, but we cannot do it alone. Eating happens many times a day and it is mostly you at home when this happens.
Are you ready to make BIG changes?
You are THE MOST important person on the team!
You are your child's anchor, their comfort, their biggest cheerleader and best advocate.
You are the key to the program we develop being successful.
It takes commitment to learn, to be open minded, and to follow through with recommendations.
We are on the same team, but we cannot do it alone. Eating happens many times a day and it is mostly you at home when this happens.
Are you ready to make BIG changes?