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Swallowing & Feeding Therapy
Feeding infants can be very stressful. As most children learn through play, don’t be surprised to see food being spilled and thrown around in our sessions.
Creating positive meal times in and out of therapy for clients and families is one of our main goals. This is done by reducing feeding anxiety and progressing in a systematic manner allowing clients to feel safe and confident.
Infant Feeding Therapy
Babies born prematurely or fragile usually experience difficulties in latching, extracting, sucking, swallowing and other challenges along the way. This can be stressful for the baby and the caregiver. Full term babies can also have feeding limitations due to a host of medical conditions, developing sensory systems, issues with oral structure and/or function challenges. This leads to parental/caregiver stress and also child stress leading to negative feelings about feedings which can affect future feeding experiences. Therapy will be tailored towards creating quality driven co-regulated feedings with a goal to support infants and caregivers in success.
Pediatric Feeding Therapy
iRise Speech Therapy offers Pediatric Feeding Therapy for picky eaters in children and to help assist the families. We can use a hybrid or individualized approach, by utilizing and paying attention to each client’s sensory system, motor system, medical status, and behavioral limitations that present during these feeding opportunities. Our focus is mainly on the whole child, gaining insights , and reducing the worry around mealtimes by building strong and competent feeders in a fun and innovative way. We do play with our food! Whether you are working on transitioning from bottles to cups, transitioning to solids, concerned about variety and/or intake, or behaviors during meals, we are ready and excited to meet you and your child to determine the “why” of what’s happening at mealtimes and create a program plan to get your little meeting goals happily. We always encourage our families, outside of therapeutic sessions, to create a positive relationship with foods for their children. Additionally, parents and professionals who find mealtime challenging can learn techniques and tips regarding our approach by setting up a personal consultation.
Behavioral Feeding Plans
Our goal is to recognize that children are coming to the “table” with a story and all of their previous feeding experiences. Our job is to first identify and rule out any underlying medical conditions, sensory challenges, and oral motor limitations by consulting with the child’s team to best serve the therapeutic process. Once we have ruled out and treated any of the aforementioned challenges, we collaborate with the client’s team to create a program to determine the function of the behaviors to promote successful feeding experiences and competent happy feeders.
Swallowing Therapy
This is different from feeding therapy. Most times, we are treating individuals with challenges with swallowing related to the oral and pharyngeal stages of the swallow. While treatment depends on the cause, symptoms, and type of swallowing challenges present, it usually includes exercises to improve muscle movement, modification to diet as needed combined with positions to help each individual swallow more effectively.