Does your baby or child struggle with feeding or meal time? At OPTC, our team of Speech-Language Pathologists offers feeding therapy services to help children from birth through adolescence increase skills to safely consume food and liquids.

Warning signs of DYSPHAGIA (the medical term for swallowing difficulties) may include:

• Back arching
• Difficulty breathing when feeding or eating
• Coughing and/or choking during or after swallowing
• Crying during meal times or food aversion/avoidance
• Difficulty chewing and/or initiating a swallow
• Excessive drooling
• Frequent congestion specifically after meals
• Loss of food or liquid when eating out of the mouth
• Taking longer than 30 min to finish meals or snacks
• Noisy or wet vocal quality after meals
• Food remaining in mouth following swallow

 

Feeding difficulties can include problems within the 

• Oral phase- Inability to close lips over cup or spoon, difficulty manipulating food in the mouth with the tongue, and difficulty or inappropriate chewing 
• Pharyngeal phase-  inappropriate swallowing that can lead to aspiration (food or liquid entering the airway) of food and liquids into lungs due to motor and structural problems.

Oklahoma Pediatric Therapy Center’s Speech-Language Pathologists are able to offer assistance by: 

• Helping your child learn how to chew and manipulate new foods 
• Increase oral muscles to make their mouth stronger
• Increase tongue movements 
• Assisting in helping your child suck from a bottle or drink from a cup 
• Helping infants learn how to coordinate the suck, swallow, breathe pattern 
• Modifying textures of foods and liquids to increase safety of the swallow
• Increased acceptance of a wide variety of foods 
• Improving or changing posture for improved safety while eating

 

If you have concerns with your child’s ability to safely eat please consult with your physician for a referral to Speech Therapy at OPTC. Also, make sure to check out all of our Speech Therapy Services here: https://optccares.com/services/speech-therapy/

By: Elizabeth McGaha and Riley Stinson