Exposure in Pediatric Feeding Therapy

Katy Gudim, CCC-SLP

Exposure in pediatric feeding therapy is a huge part of the process in getting your child to be comfortable around new foods. In this post, Katy Gudim CCC-SLP discusses how this is a huge developmental step in the hierarchal process of feeding therapy.

Exposure is an important aspect for all people to learn to enjoy a new food. Some ways to provide early exposures to new foods include visual exposures (seeing a food) and olfactory exposures (smelling the food, perhaps during cooking and preparation). 

The eating hierarchy designed by feeding expert Dr. Kay Toomey highlights the steps towards eating a new food, and exemplifies the importance of multiple exposures to new foods before a child may be ready to try it. 

The first step on the eating hierarchy is to “tolerate” seeing a food, which moves through the process of being in the same room as the food to tolerating the food on the plate/table. In order for some children (especially those with restricted diet preferences) to tolerate a novel food on their plate, they may need to simply be in the same room as the food several times first. While this may seem extreme to adults, we can empathize with how it might feel to have something you have never seen before to suddenly be on your plate.

Conversely, it may make a person feel more comfortable if they had already seen the food multiple times. This might look like pointing the food out at the grocery store, or including your child in parts of meal preparation so they can see the new foods in a low-pressure environment. Typically-developing children may require 8-15 exposures to a new food before feeling comfortable enough to try it. Imagine how many more exposures “picky eaters” and “problem feeders” may need!

If you feel your child could benefit from feeding therapy, call our clinic today to setup a free consultation with one of our therapists to see if this is something that could help your child!