Specialized Feeding Care

 Therapy addressing specific challenges that can impact feeding and/or swallowing abilities. Specific and various therapeutic modalities are applied based on the child’s and family’s needs. Feeding & Swallow Therapy can help with bottle refusal, picky eating, limited food repertoire, coughing when eating or drinking, transitioning from tube feeding to oral feeding and more. 

 Eating may seem simple but it is a big task that requires 6 cranial nerves and over 40 muscles! Oral sensorimotor therapy helps to address sensory input and in turn oral motor movement needed for the muscles of the face and mouth to perform effectively, efficiently and functionally for safe eating, swallowing and airway skills. Sucking, latching, chewing, and moving the food around the mouth are all types of oral motor tasks that can sometimes need help.  

Tongue and lip ties can affect latch, feeding efficiency, and oral motor function. Pre and post-release therapy helps prepare the little one and family before a release and supports healing and improves functional feeding skills afterward. 

Going home from the NICU is such an exciting time! Continue your feeding journey after leaving the NICU for ongoing support during this transition, to assist with optimal feeding development, and guidance to ensure family confidence and comfort.

Gentle hands-on therapy that uses light touch to support the healthy development of the nervous system and release abnormal tension patterns in the body’s fascia. Releasing tension and regulating the nervous system can help to promote calm, relaxing, and comfortable feeding experiences. Beneficial for colic, oral restrictions (e.g. tongue tie), preparing for tongue/lip tie release, GI discomfort, difficulty calming, birth trauma.

Teletherapy sessions to answer parent’s feeding questions. Helpful for prenatal coaching in preparation for baby, guidance on bottle and nipple selection, feeding utensils and starting solids. 

A focused, short-term, and high-frequency therapy option for children with significant and chronic feeding difficulties to help increase oral intake, reduce the need for tube feeding, and improve weight gain.

An evidence based therapeutic modality used in conjunction with traditional feeding/swallow therapy to assist with improving strength and coordination of the muscles necessary for swallowing by stimulating muscle fibers and nerve pathways.