Who Benefits from this Program?
Oral skills for feeding develop during the first two years of life, which means a child should be able to eat most food textures by the age of two. The goals of this program are to provide early identification of feeding skills difficulties, foster a positive relationship with food, and prevent long term developmental implications for the child.
If your child is not doing the following, consider contacting us for a feeding evaluation:
- Fail to transition to purees by 7 months
- Do not eat dissolvable and soft solids (e.g., puffs, cheerios, soft cooked vegetables, soft fruit) by 9 months
- Do not eat finger foods (e.g., noodles, small bits of meat, diced fruit, pieces of bread) by 12 months
- Are avoiding an entire food texture group (e.g., crunchy, lumpy, mushy, meats)
How we Help
Successful texture transition from liquids to solids is an integral component of your infant/toddler’s feeding development. Once you schedule a visit, your child will participate in a feeding evaluation with one of our feeding specialists. Please plan to bring a mix of 2-3 foods your child eats and does not eat. The feeding specialist will observe your child eating to assess their feeding skills with different textures and determine challenges resulting from specific feeding skills difficulties. Based on the assessment findings, your therapist will create a plan of care to help your child learn to eat a variety of food textures.
Infants and toddlers who struggle with food texture transition may also demonstrate delay in their verbal skills or speech production. As pediatric development specialists, we will consistently monitor these areas of development and collaborate with our multidisciplinary team to meet your child’s developmental needs.