Feeding Matters defines a pediatric feeding disorder as “an impaired oral intake that is not age-appropriate and is associated with medical, nutritional, feeding skill, and/or psychosocial dysfunction.” Pediatric Feeding Disorders affect more than 1 in 37 children under the age of 5 in the United States each year. For these children, food is scary and often associated with pain, and can interfere with nutrition, development, growth, and overall well-being as they do not consume enough nutrients to provide them with adequate nutrition/hydration.
There are many causes of pediatric feeding disorders, including medical, sensory, oral motor, nutritional and pychosocial/environmental.
The strength, range of motion, dissociation, grading, coordination, and oral rest posture of our orofacial muscles and structures (tongue, lips, jaw, teeth) play an integral part in development of speech and feeding skills. Specifically, our oral motor skills impact how we accept food/liquid into the mouth and prepare and form a cohesive bolus safely and efficiently for the swallow. Skills impacted include sucking, lateralization, chewing, bolus formation, and posterior movement of the bolus for the swallow.
Structural components impacting oral motor skill development include:
Signs of an oral motor disorder include:
Good nutrition is crucial and directly affects a brains activity level: fine and gross motor skill developmental, and overall health and wellness.
Challenging mealtime behaviors that affect the caregiver-child relationship. These behaviors may include:
If your child presents with any of the following red flags, a feeding/swallowing evaluation is warranted:
Our office is conveniently located on Palmetto Park Road, in between Powerline Rd and Lyons Road on the 2nd floor of the 7301 building.
