Feeding

Feeding difficulties in children can be caused by several factors:

• Sensory
• Oral Motor Skills
• Behavioural

Many children with Autism, Down Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Global Developmental Delay, or Low Muscle Tone can present with feeding difficulties as a result of any or all the above factors.

At Lisa Collins Speech Therapy a thorough oral motor and sensory evaluation will be completed before considering any behavioural explanations for feeding difficulties.

Sensory/Motor Difficulties:

• Difficulty tolerating smells.
• Difficulty sitting at the table for mealtimes.
• Self-limiting diet based on taste, texture, temperature, colour, smell, or brand.
• Decreased ability to control saliva and decreased awareness of saliva on lips or chin.
• Decreased ability to feel food in the mouth or on the lips.
• Decreased ability to discriminate hunger and satiation (never hungry).
• Swallows food that is not adequately broken down.
• Holds food in the mouth for long periods of time, even after chewing.
• Will put any non-food item in their mouth but will not put food in their mouth.
• Has a complicated routine related mealtime.
• Decreased motor skills necessary to break down food effectively, resulting in gaging and choking.

Behavioural:

It is very rare that feeding difficulties are purely behavioural, as they are usually secondary to sensory and/or motor difficulties. In cases where feeding difficulties have become behavioural (e.g. for some children with ASD), using the principles of ABA in feeding therapy can be very beneficial.

Therapy:

An individualised programme will be drawn up to suit specific difficulties, this may involve a combination of sensory-motor and behavioural approaches.