Pediatric Feeding Therapy
Serving Children and Families in Maplewood and Plymouth, MN
Developmental Delays • Fine & Gross Motor Development • Sensory Processing • Self-Regulation • Handwriting • Self-Care Skills • Picky Eating • Oral Motor Delays • Pediatric Feeding Disorders • Muscle Weakness • Mobility Challenges • Gait Abnormalities • Musculoskeletal Conditions • Joint Dysfunction & Pain • Torticollis & Plagiocephaly • Bowel & Bladder Issues • Speech & Language Disorders • School Readiness Skills
Feeding Therapy for Kids
Feeding therapy is offered through our occupational therapy program and can be incorporated into a comprehensive OT treatment plan.
Eating is hard work! Our therapists help children overcome challenges that affect their ability to sit at the table, use utensils, and feel comfortable with food. Depending on your family’s goals, our feeding therapy sessions may focus on:
Building sensory and motor skills for effective feeding
Gradually exploring new foods without pressure
Gaining comfort with different textures, tastes, and smells
Reducing anxiety, choking, gagging, and coughing
Making mealtimes more enjoyable for the whole family
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Feeding difficulties often start in infancy and early childhood, and might look like:
Poor weight gain, or even weight loss
Limited growth
Back arching, pulling away, and crying during breast/bottle feedings
Excessive drooling or poor lip closure
Difficulty transitioning between breast/bottle, purees, mixed textures, or solid foods
Only eating certain foods
Stress or avoidance when new foods are offered
Trust your intuition! If you feel your child is struggling with feeding or eating at any age, contact us for an evaluation.
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No! Our goal is to help your child have positive experiences with food. Eating is one of the only things that a child can exercise strict control over when they feel like other things are out of control, so we can only help if your child feels safe, stress free, and in control.
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The first thing we do is take the focus off of food, which dials down your child’s stress level.
Then, we use a combination of approaches that help build the underlying sensory and motor skills needed for feeding to be more successful. We use play-based, curious, gradual exploration of food to keep feeding positive and present a just-right challenge. By respecting boundaries while we work on underlying skills, we develop a safe space for your child to take risks with food.
We also experiment with simple strategies that you can try at home. We’ll work together every step of the way to bring the joy back to family mealtimes!
We are accepting new patients as therapist caseload allows.
We focus on serving each family we meet to the best of our abilities, rather than scheduling as many patients as possible.
We specialize in trauma-informed occupational therapy, feeding therapy, speech therapy, and physical therapy for kids in Maplewood and Plymouth, MN.