What is a Pediatric Feeding Disorder?
According to Feeding Matters, Pediatric feeding disorder (PFD) is “impaired oral intake that is not age-appropriate and is associated with medical,
nutritional, feeding skill, and/or psychosocial dysfunction”.
Pediatric feeding disorders look different across the life span. They can look like:
- a baby who is unable to latch to breast or bottle
- a toddler that cannot transition to table food
- a child reliant on a g-tube or NG-tube for nutrition
- a child with a limited diet due to sensory concerns or oral motor delays
If a child has difficulty consuming age appropriate meals, they may need a feeding therapy evaluation.
What is feeding therapy?
Feeding therapy is skilled and individualized treatment by a trained occupational therapist or speech language pathologist to help your child
eat better. Therapy sessions are more than just learning about food, your therapist will work with you to assesses and addresses the oral motor, sensory, behavioral, structural, and underlying medical components that may be impacting your child’s ability to eat.
A Team Approach
At Total Pediatric Therapy we have a team of occupational therapists, physical therapists, and speech language pathologists. As a team, we work to provide a whole-child approach to Pediatric feeding disorders by addressing the sensory, postural, stand oral motor concerns that can contribute to feeding delays.
What We Treat
- Feeding tube dependence
- Sensory based feeding difficulties
- Oral Motor Dysfunction
- Tongue and lip ties
- Pre and Post Frenectomy Care
- Autism Spectrum Disorder
- Cerebral Palsy
- Genetic Conditions
- Difficulty transitioning to solids
- Various genetic syndromes
- And more! Please call us to discuss additional feeding concerns.