feeding difficulties | Team 4 Kids

Feeding Therapy Blog Post: Fun Dishes To Encourage Eating

January 25, 2016 by admin Leave a Comment

Fun Dishes To Encourage Eating

During feeding therapy, we use a number of games, toys and dishes to make eating more of a fun experience. Here are a few simple examples of fun dishes that may help your little one with feeding difficulties try some new foods. I personally bought one of the game plates for use at home with my kids and they fight over who gets the special game plate!

Face plates such as this are sold on websites such as Amazon. For a cheaper version, try drawing a face on a paper plate.

I love using fun forks and spoons to encourage pick eaters to try new foods. These are a few examples of forks that I have found successful in the clinic. Additionally, children love small appetizer forks that can be found at most dollar stores.

This plate is available on Amazon and allows children to receive a special surprise once they work their way around the board trying each food.

Tips for using these plates:

Put small amounts of food on the plates.
Put foods that child enjoys as well as new foods on the plate.
Remember that “trying” a new food may be only smelling, kissing or licking it.
Allow your child to tell you where to put each food or better yet, have them place the food on the plate themselves.
Rotate the plate to other family members throughout the week so the whole family can enjoy it.

Jen – Feeding Therapist/Speech Pathologist

Tips for Holiday Meals with Picky Eaters

November 18, 2015 by admin Leave a Comment

Tips for Holiday Meals with Picky Eaters: Holiday mealtimes can sometimes be stressful for both picky eaters and their parents. Even the sight and different smells of the various foods can often times be overwhelming for a child with feeding difficulties. Listed below are some useful tips to consider in planning for holiday mealtimes:

Preparation:

Prepare your child for family outings and gatherings.
Discuss the next day’s events and share stories and pictures of family members with whom your child might not be familiar.
Keep a calendar of holiday events that your family will be celebrating.
Have your child help write the lists and go to the grocery store to help with the shopping.
Show them what you will be cooking, and what grandma and other family members might bring, etc. Ask them what they want you to make/contribute to the holiday meal.
Have them assist in the kitchen as much as possible, even if it is only setting out the ingredients, measuring, mixing or setting the table.

Mealtime:

Allow your child to help in food preparation or even placing food items on the table, without the expectation of them trying the food once seated at the table.
Try to serve food family-style when possible during large holiday meals.
Remember to keep portion sizes small.
Bringing a familiar sectioned plate for your child to use from home might also be helpful.
Bring a dish or food item you know your child will eat if you will be having a meal at somebody else’s home.
Try to eat as close to routine mealtimes as possible (although this can be very difficult during the holidays and especially when not eating meals at home).

Following Mealtime:

If possible, plan other activities that do not involve food. Bring crafts and games to play following mealtimes. Pinterest is an excellent source for craft and game ideas.

If you have any questions please ask your child’s speech therapist, feeding therapist, or your child’s physician.

Happy Holiday! – Michelle, Feeding Therapy and Speech Therapy Team

Proper Seating for Eating: Tips from a Pediatric Feeding Therapist

October 21, 2015 by admin Leave a Comment

Proper Seating for Eating: Tips from a Pediatric Feeding Therapist

Does your child graze around the table at mealtime? As a feeding therapist, I often come across children that refuse to eat at the table or sit in a high chair. The behavior that is most often reported during a feeding evaluation is that the child will sit for less than 3 minutes, get up from the table, walk around , play and come back from time to time to grab additional bites. Most of these children are not getting enough food, have very limited diets and are at risk for feeding difficulties.

Introducing new foods take time, especially if your child has feeding problems. If your child is only at the table for 3 minutes, you do not have the proper amount of time to explore the food with your child and they are less likely to give it a try. Additionally, children model the behavior of their parents. If they see you eating food at the table, they are more likely to try it.

In feeding therapy we often use special feeding chairs, high chairs or boosters. These chairs not only allow for proper support during feeding but significantly reduce the avoidance and escape behaviors that are seen when exploring new foods. If you notice that your child is grazing at mealtimes, I highly recommend getting different seating for them.

When you first introduce the new chair at home, spend time just playing at the table in the chair with their favorite toy or music. Make it fun before you try to introduce mealtime in the chair. We want this to be a positive experience. When children come into feeding therapy at the clinic, the majority of them climb up into the chair themselves and do not view it in a negative way because we spend the time initially making the chair something fun.

If you have questions about the proper chair for your child, please talk to your feeding therapist.

Jen, Feeding Therapist

Food Exploration Through Toys

August 19, 2015 by admin Leave a Comment

An excellent way to encourage food exploration and introduction to new foods in a more relaxed environment is through toys! Mealtimes can be stressful for children with feeding difficulties and exploring food through play with toys and games can be both fun and effective. There are varieties of toys and games to play while also exposing children to novel foods. An example is playing ‘store.’ Help your child set-up a pretend grocery store with a variety of play (or real) foods and allow them to ‘shop’ while you are the cashier. Allow them to fill their grocery basket (you can use a bucket, a child sized grocery cart or even a cardboard box) with food items. Talk about the different foods needed to make new recipes, make pretend shopping lists together. This allows them to choose different foods that they may not necessarily try during mealtimes, but engage in play with novel foods without the expectation of actually eating the novel food.

Another fun activity is to play restaurant with your child. Take turns being chef and a customer in a restaurant (you can even make fun, silly names for your ‘restaurant’). Let your child ‘take your order and prepare the food’ while you wait at the table. Melissa & Doug brand toys have developed a variety of different felt food kits, including a felt pizza kit with all the toppings, a sandwich set with a variety of meats, veggies and breads and a taco and burrito set. This is also an excellent opportunity to address categories of different food groups, following directions and identifying colors, shapes and sizes!

Have fun playing, and eating!

– Michelle, Speech and Feeding Therapy Team

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