Solace Celebrations | Eli is Exploring His Mealtime Options With Success

It’s time for Solace Pediatric to celebrate once again! A few weeks ago we featured Saeed who was wowing all of us with his rapid progress in his speech therapy.  This week we want you to meet Eli who has worked very hard with his occupational therapist Kim to become far more comfortable during meal time!

Eli’s occupational therapy has made all the difference in his diet

Prior to starting OT Eli had a limited diet, didn’t like to touch many foods and refused anything cold. He is now eating many new foods including chocolate matzah, noodles and a few different types of meat. He’s no longer drinking from a bottle and loves cold smoothies in his sippy cup! Huge congrats to Eli and his family! They’ve worked so hard!!

Occupational therapy makes a huge difference for kids with feeding difficulties

It’s not uncommon for children to struggle with feeding. These kinds of challenges can range from:

• Having a hard time with chewing and swallowing
• Refusing to eat different textures or try new foods
• Pickiness beyond normal food preference behavior
• Exceptionally rigid behaviors at mealtime

Occupational therapy can address feeding issues with methods that support children to learn how to eat many different kinds of foods as well as work through oral-motor delay like chewing properly and swallowing with safety and confidence.

Working with an occupational therapist on feeding therapy

At Solace Pediatric our trained occupational therapists will want to know everything they can discover about your child’s current diet and eating habits. They will also take time to watch your child interact with food and performing very basic interactions like eating and drinking. Any information about mealtime routines or patterns are extremely helpful and if there are other issues such as if your child has difficulty using their hands to eat that would be very important to know as well. There are several other evaluations that our OT’s would perform to make sure that a customized plan that is perfectly designed for your child’s needs can be put into place.