RainbowSprinkles Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 Hi, I was wondering if anyone has any experience with feeding therapy for children? My ds3 is going to a feeding evaluation next month. My insurance will pay for the eval, but said they will decide further coverage based on the results. If your dc or any child you know has been, was the therapy successful? How long did you stay in therapy? What sort of things were helpful at home? I feel like we are finally going in the right direction. I knew something was not right from the time ds was an infant. I was always told that he would outgrow it, but he has not. It has just gotten so much worse. I'm positive a lot of the issues we were dealing with now, could have been avoided. Anyway, I would love to hear some encouraging stories/experiences. :bigear: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LostSurprise Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 :bigear: Getting a referral for this tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkygirl Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 We are currently receiving "eating therapy" for DD 18 months old. We were referred to our local school system's infants and toddlers program. An occupational therapist comes out to our house every other week and teaches us new skills, exercises and activities to do with her to assist her in eating. We started down this road for a speech delay but she did not quality score 13 months when she was 17 months old and had to be 12.5 months or less to qualify. The OT who was here for her evaluation noticed that she had feeding issues and recommended her for services based on atypical oral motor development. DD does not use her tongue at all (in the past two months of therapy we have succeeded in getting her to stick her tongue out and lick), she over stuffs her mouth which is a coping mechanism for poor oral mechanics and does not eat tough foods. Tomorrow we are signing the papers for a more in-depth expressive and receptive language evaluation. Hope this helped Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
applethyme Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 My son was a micro preemie who developed a severe oral aversion. He had a speech therapist come to the home once a week for two years. He now eats about 50% of his calories and the rest is tube fed. We had OT for a bit but ds did much better for the ST. It was a personality issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A.Balaban Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 :bigear: We finally got a referral and my DD is being seen at the feeding program in Hershey. She meets with the Dr. at the end of this month. It's taken about a year to get the referral. No one ever mentioned any therapy at home. I should look into this as well.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
higginszoo Posted July 17, 2012 Share Posted July 17, 2012 We did some things with our oldest for a while -- he was pre-term. Insurance didn't cover many sessions, and I never saw marked improvement, so once I was on bedrest and had a newborn (the older ones are 13 mo apart), I stopped, but kept working with the bite sticks and other things they'd had him doing until he was 3-ish. It was odd feeding the toddler/preschooler purees while his younger siblings had (finely chopped) table food. He was still gaggy and texture averse until he turned 7, and then some switch went off and he has been a pretty adventurous eater ever since, and at 14 is working toward becoming a chef (he may well go on for a 4 year degree for something else, but this would give him a career to help him work his way through college). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RainbowSprinkles Posted July 18, 2012 Author Share Posted July 18, 2012 Thank you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sparkygirl Posted July 18, 2012 Share Posted July 18, 2012 :bigear: We finally got a referral and my DD is being seen at the feeding program in Hershey. She meets with the Dr. at the end of this month. It's taken about a year to get the referral. No one ever mentioned any therapy at home. I should look into this as well.... I absolutely would look into the infants and toddlers program. It will be through your local school systems special education program. All evaluations and therapy are provided in our home. It is a parent coaching program though and they were very clear about that if we wanted someone else to come in and work with our daughter for her therapy that was not what they were about. We are actively engaged and learn the skills and exercises to work with her on then we spend 5-10 minutes each day working on them with her between the visits from the therapists. Its a model that works very well for a child who will be home schooled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.