Pediatric Feeding Disorders

Flight’s Feeding Philosophy

At Flight Therapy Services, we believe in a collaborative approach to feeding including the child, their parents, and the medical team. We work with the family and the child’s medical team to determine underlying difficulties that could be impacting their feeding intake by emphasizing collaboration and looking at the whole child to help you get to the root cause of their feeding difficulties. When treating pediatric feeding disorders, we operate within the Responsive Feeding Therapeutic approach and go at the child’s pace to improve feeding skill through a sensory motor approach and support diet expansion through play and food chaining. We also highly emphasize parent education and involvement in the session to empower the parent to help support their child with pediatric feeding disorders at home.

WELCOME TO FLIGHT’S FEEDING PROGRAM!

We are so excited that you have chosen to enroll your child in Flight Speech Therapy’s feeding program. It is our desire that you experience a warm, welcoming environment, and that you feel safe and comfortable enough to ask questions and to learn how to help your child succeed. We require consistent parent participation and interaction during therapy sessions, and strive to give you the tools to use at home to help your child grow and reach their goals. We want to hear from you, to understand your goals and desires for your child and how they can better interact with your family at mealtimes. In order for your child to experience the greatest success possible, we ask a few things of you.

1. CONSISTENT ATTENDANCE: If you don’t come, we cannot help you. Consistent attendance is imperative to your child’s success in this program. If you must miss your weekly appointment, we ask that you make every effort to reschedule within the week. Additionally, your therapist has set aside this appointment especially for your child and therapy appointments will start on time and end on time. If you arrive late, you may risk forfeiting your session for the day. Our attendance policy requires that a family keep an 80% attendance rate within any 3 month period. This is in place in order to best help your child succeed in our program and to make room for other children who can consistently attend sessions. We do offer a Flexible Schedule Program that works well for busy families who cannot keep a permanent schedule.

2. BRING CHILD HUNGRY: As this is feeding therapy, we want to help your child experience a variety of food textures and choices, through several methods: playing with food, feeding others/puppets, feeding self, accepting bites from others, etc. If your child is fed right before the session, he/she will not necessarily gain the most benefit from our feeding therapy sessions.

3. BRING FOOD: While we do stock shelf-stable snack foods, these are not generally the types of foods that parents desire for their children to eat for meals. We believe it is important for your child to practice eating foods that you serve in your home, and this means that your therapist will ask you to bring a small lunchbox or bag with a variety of freshly prepared foods for us to try during the therapy session.

4. EXERCISES/TOOLBOX: You may have been provided a folder with oral strengthening or coordination exercises in it, along with a toolbox specific to your child’s needs. In order to avoid using mouth tools among multiple patients, we may provide the initial tools to get them started. The therapist also may ask you to purchase additional tools in order to further the goals of your child. Please make every effort to bring the folder and toolbox with you to therapy sessions. Also, don’t forget to practice the exercises at home too!

5. HOME VISITS: On the rare occasion that we need to do a home or preschool visit, we are doing so in order to help train additional caregivers in the feeding techniques that work for your child. Parents are required to attend these sessions and will be responsible to support transition to and from the therapy session. Travel appointments are only offered as the first session of the day.

6. COMMUNICATION: Communication is of the utmost importance to success in feeding therapy. Please let your therapist know what is working, what isn’t working, what goals you may have for your child and family, etc. Our GOAL is to help decrease mealtime stress and increase mealtime enjoyment for your child and your family.

Again, we are excited to work with you and your child, and look forward to helping them grow and develop into an adventurous eater!

Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions. 

Thank you for trusting us with your child!

What is a Pediatric Feeding Disorder?

From feedingmatters.org

What Are PFD and ARFID?

Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID) was first recognized in 2013 as an expansion of the mental health diagnosis “Feeding Disorder of Infancy and Early Childhood” found in the DSM-IV. It is a feeding and eating disorder and mental health diagnosis that describes children and adults with feeding problems and related nutritional risks without medical issues or body image concerns. ARFID significantly overlaps with the diagnosis pediatric feeding disorder (PFD).

Pediatric feeding disorder (PFD) is a multidisciplinary diagnosis that is defined as impaired oral intake that is not age-appropriate, and is associated with medical, nutritional, feeding skill, and/or psychosocial dysfunction. Both diagnoses exclude body image issues as a criterion.

The overlap between these two diagnoses, combined with the siloed fields of treatment and research, has caused confusion among healthcare professionals and families alike. Feeding Matters is committed to uniting the fields of eating disorders and feeding disorders to provide clearer guidance and support.

Download PFD Fact Sheet  https://www.feedingmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Toolkit-PFD-Fact-Sheet-1.pdf

Download Family Guide https://www.feedingmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/FeedingMattersFamilyGuide.pdf

Download ARFID Fact Sheet https://www.feedingmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/What-is-ARFID.pdf

What is the Responsive Feeding Therapeutic Approach? 

(Taken directly from responsivefeedingpro.com)

Definition of RFT

Responsive Feeding Therapy (RFT) is an overarching approach to feeding and eating interventions applicable to multiple disciplines and across the lifespan. RFT facilitates the (re)discovery of internal cues, curiosity, and motivation, while building skills and confidence. It is flexible, prioritizes the feeding relationship, and respects and develops autonomy.

RFT Values: Autonomy, Relationship, Internal Motivation, Individualized Care, Competence

Autonomy pertains to agency and respect for personal space and bodily integrity, enabling a person to be in control of their own actions.

Relationship refers to warm and attuned interpersonal connections.

Competence means the individual’s perceived (as opposed to objectively assessed) sense of having sufficient skills to manage a situation.

Intrinsic motivation describes a desire to act that is self-driven rather than brought about by external forces.

Holism (the whole child lens) refers to a focus on the whole person, in the context of their families, communities, and cultures.

What RFT is not

• RFT practitioners do not coach parents to encourage or ‘get’ the child to interact with food (although child-initiated food interactions may take place in therapy and at home). Parents are coached to provide a supportive environment, but are not expected to be the child’s feeding therapist.

• RFT is not simply ‘having fun’ with food. Just because an approach is playful, that doesn’t necessarily make it responsive.

• Accepting a child’s ‘no’ or giving a child a choice does not necessarily imply that an intervention is responsive. Children may comply for many reasons, including a desire to please or to escape from a situation.

• RFT is not simply ‘no pressure’ or doing nothing. The absence of pressure or coercion is one small piece of a holistic, relationship-building framework.

For more information, click on this link:

https://responsivefeedingpro.com/about-rft/