Feeding Therapy

Chatterboxes' therapists work with children and their families to develop age-appropriate feeding skills and promote positive mealtime behaviors so as to foster healthy feeding habits during the critical early stages of a child's life. Our feeding therapy program employs motor exercises, oral-motor techniques and/or procedures to optimize mealtime structure, as well as to explore and introduce new food types and textures.

The development of feeding skills is essential to a child's physical, cognitive, and emotional growth. Children begin acquiring feeding skills as infants and gradually progress to have adult-like skills by the age of three. In these critical first three years of life, children learn to manage a variety of textures, starting with liquids and then advancing to purees and solids. They become increasingly skilled at using utensils and eventually become independent self-feeders.

Many children can be described as "picky eaters" in these early years, but when is it more than just being picky? A feeding disorder can manifest in a variety of ways. For instance, some children have an extremely restricted repertoire of ingested foods. Others do not consume enough volume to maintain a healthy weight. Still others may not be able to progress to age-appropriate textures. Whatever the feeding-related problem, the situation can be extremely stressful for both children and their families.

Please visit our Feeding Developmental Milestones page for more information as to whether your child is reaching their respective goals.

Read our Parent Feeding Strategies guide for parents of children facing feeding challenges.