Our Comprehensive Feeding Program includes diagnostic and treatment planning for feeding issues. Treatment includes outpatient multidisciplinary individual therapies for feeding issues with a focus on speech, occupational therapy, psychology, nutrition, family education and training.
 

The Comprehensive Feeding Program aims to promote safe, pleasurable, and nurturing mealtime experiences for children and their families while fostering the progression of developmental feeding milestones. There are many factors that contribute to why a child will not eat and in order to address these factors properly, an interdisciplinary team approach is used for assessment and construction of a treatment plan. The Comprehensive Feeding Program at Children’s Specialized Hospital offers evaluation and treatment to children from birth through 21 years of age who experience difficulties with feeding.

 

 Evaluations are based on the needs of the child and can include either a full team evaluation or an evaluation with a specific discipline. Full team evaluations assess the medical, physiological, developmental, behavioral, and psychosocial issues that can impact a child’s feeding behavior. Individual, discipline-specific evaluations occur when a single area has clearly been identified as contributing to the child’s feeding difficulties. 
 

Upon completion of the evaluation process, treatment recommendations are made and strategies and suggestions are formulated with the goal of establishing feeding patterns that can be maintained in the child’s natural environment. 
 

Based on each child’s specific needs, therapeutic recommendations are made to one or more of our programs. Individual feeding therapy is offered in the following disciplines: speech, occupational therapy, psychology, and nutrition follow up. There is a strong emphasis on parent involvement and training. Scheduling is flexible and an individual treatment plan will be created and implemented for each child. 

To provide a comprehensive evaluation and treatment plan for each child, the Comprehensive Feeding Program utilizes the knowledge and expertise of a multidisciplinary team of pediatric specialists. The team includes: