If you took your LO to a feeding therapist....

What were their suggestions? I know the suggestions vary based on the reason why a child is having difficulty eating but I want to compare suggestions others have received to the suggestions I received.

Re: If you took your LO to a feeding therapist....

Do you means to help or how they worked with LO?

We took DS to a couple of different ones. He has texture issues and low muscle tone. He also never pushed the food to the side with his tongue to chew. She suggested pretzel sticks or rods to put it to the side of his mouth, put a small piece of food on his side to get him to move it around with his tongue... Oh, change the highchair so his feet are on the stool so he's sitting up straight. We never changed the chair though.
It's been a while so trying to remember.
He pretty much eats what they called the white foods. Circle crackers, yogurts, pretzels. Eith smooth or crunchy bc he has problems trying to figure when to swallow with foods like meats or pastas.

Doing a little better now. Still some sensory and texture issues, but getting better with speech and OT at school. He's 4 now. Big progress.

Re: If you took your LO to a feeding therapist....

I'm curious what suggestions they had to help your LO

Re: If you took your LO to a feeding therapist....

My DD's issue was poor formula intake. At our initial consultation, the feeding therapist saw that she had a lingering tongue thrust reflex. The feeding therapist was more concerned with increasing her food intake than her bottles, which confused me. Her suggestions were as follows:

1. 3 hours feeding schedule. 6:30 bottle, 9:30 food, 12:30 bottle, 3:30 food, 6:30 food, then bottle at bed time. This did NOT work for us, as DD would sometimes drink 8 oz total!!

2. For the tongue thrust, use stick-shaped dissolvables to make her move her tongue to her molar area. She suggested a specific brand of veggie sticks. That worked nicely.

3. Use meal-appropriate distractions, not TV. We stuck to this nicely at first, then resorted to the TV more often, because it worked and I was desperate to get food/formula into her anyway possible.


The week after the consult, DD had a swallow study and was diagnosed with dysphagia, so we had to thicken her bottles with oatmeal. Still hasn't solved the problem. She's going on 1 year, tiny, and still hates her bottles!