When a child is experiencing difficulties with eating,
mealtimes can often be discouraging and frustrating for
families. For many children, eating is a chore due to
various feeding/swallowing complications.
 Despite parents’
best efforts, these children often need specialized
intervention to achieve success with eating. Mealtimes do
not have to be a battle. We are here to help.
Feeding treatment is provided at PTI to address a variety of
feeding and swallowing difficulties in children. We do not
always know what causes feeding difficulties in children;
however, we are able to identify two areas of overall
difficulty:
- Behavioral/Sensory difficulties
- Medically-based difficulties
Children with severe food selectivity are typically treated with a behavioral
feeding approach.
The Food Chaining Protocol, a systematic method for treating
children with extreme food sensitivity, is utilized with the majority of
children experiencing behavioral feeding difficulties.
Children with medically-based feeding/swallowing difficulties may also receive
feeding treatment at PTI. Children who qualify for this type of treatment may
have difficulties with one or more of the following:
- gastrointestinal problems (reflux, feeding tubes, etc)
- reduced/limited intake
- dysphagia (difficulty swallowing, coughing/choking during mealtimes)
- oral motor deficits (difficulty chewing, sucking, etc)
- failure to thrive
- swallowing phobias
- tracheotomies
- structural/anatomical anomalies
 Children in feeding treatment at PTI receive individualized and goal-directed
intervention. Each child’s treatment is directed by a team of professionals that
may include a speech-language pathologist, occupational therapist, patient care
coordinator, pediatric gastroenterologist, and parents.
When children’s nutritional needs are met, more success is seen in physical
capabilities, attention, memory, and behavior. It is our goal at PTI to provide
intervention and strategies to meet each child’s nutritional needs and to make
mealtimes enjoyable again.
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