Feeding Therapy & Picky Eating
At SPARK we offer feeding therapy to support babies, toddlers, children and their caregivers in developing feeding skills and routines. Mealtimes are a core part of your family’s daily routine. When this routine doesn’t go as planned, it can have ripple effects on you, your child, and the whole family. Feeding therapy can help a child to develop the necessary skills to be successful with mealtimes. It can also provide valuable strategies to caregivers around supporting their child’s independence in skills such as sucking, drinking from a cup, chewing, or even swallowing. Most of all, feeding therapy can help to restore peace to your household’s mealtimes and make for a more enjoyable dining experience!
Complex Feeding
At SPARK, we have special interest in swallowing and feeding therapy. Feeding your baby and child can evoke emotions of joy, connection and anticipation as they experience and explore new things; however when feeding doesn’t go as planned, it can be stressful and leave mealtimes full of anxiety and worry.
Feeding therapy can help:
- Children who have difficulty maintaining or gaining weight (failure to thrive)
- Infants who struggle to transition to table foods
- Swallowing difficulties (dysphasia)
- Children who are reliant on tube feeds or wish to work on weaning
- Oral aversion
- Support developing skills to drink, chew, or eat independently
Picky Eating
Do you have a picky eater at home? Picky eating is a very limited diet that may consist of only a handful of foods. Eating is a skill, and consists of many subtle behaviours that all children develop over time. Picky eating is often a breakdown of one or many of these skills. Sometimes this could be a delay in their ability to chew, suck, or swallow, and other times it could be a preference or refusal around a particular texture, consistency, or even just how a food looks! Picky eating can be a significant disruption to household routines, and emotionally exhausting for children and families. At SPARK we can help mealtime battles and struggles. With compassion and empathy, we will work with you and your child to set small, feasible goals that can build your child’s food repertoire, confidence, and skills!
