3 Aspects of Feeding Therapy Outside of Eating
Angela Ou OTR/L
Feeding difficulties can be a source of stress for individuals and families that can lead to nutritional deficits and reduced social participation. Feeding therapists and feeding-trained occupational and speech therapists can help with sensory exposure and desensitization to foods, oral motor manipulation of foods, and fine and gross motor skills with handling foods. But did you know that there are aspects of feeding therapy that have little to do with the direct skill of eating and swallowing? Here are 3 aspects of feeding therapy that help to prepare a child for feeding.
Sensory regulation
In order to eat, we need to feel comfortable. For many kids with feeding difficulties (and their parents alike), mealtime can be a time of increased stress. This can lead to avoidant behaviors or stress responses, which can lead to reduced appetite and reduced mealtime participation. Receiving regulating sensory input prior to, and sometimes during, feeding can calm the nervous system and prepare a child to participate in the meal. For many, receiving proprioceptive and vestibular input through activities such as running, swinging, or crashing onto a cushion just before sitting down for a meal can increase attention and reduce the feeling of stress in the body. Regulating sensory input varies by individual – activities that are relaxing for some can increase energy, stress, or anxiety in others. An occupational therapist can help to determine a child’s sensory needs and suggest activities to support regulation.
2. Reduce the pressure
When a child is apprehensive about interacting with new foods, it can be extremely difficult to not encourage them to try. For some kids, encouragement may be just what they need; for others, it may increase the stress of an already stressful situation. A common way to reducing the pressure is to put on a favorite show or song. Another way to both reduce the pressure and increase social participation at mealtime could look like talking about anything else but the meal during the meal – what did they do at school today? What is everybody looking forward to this weekend? Sometimes, when a child feels the pressure has been completely lifted, they can then begin to feel comfortable to explore the food in front of them.
3. Participation in meal preparation and/or clean-up
Did you know that it takes about 8-15 exposures for a child to feel comfortable enough to try a new food? One way to increase these exposures is to have the child participate in preparing a meal or cleaning up after a meal. The child gains exposures such as being in the same room as a food, looking at it, smelling it, or touching it, all as part of the process of meal preparation. To further reduce the pressure, they could do this for another family member’s meal instead of their own. This provides interactions with foods that do not have to conclude in eating any particular foods. This could also give some kids insight into what goes into their meals so that they may feel more in control of what they might be eating.