Speech Therapist for Food issues
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Anonymous
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Has anyone had great success using a SLP to encourage their kiddo to eat a greater variety of foods? I don't want to waste the insurance or $ on something that does not work. My kiddo will not eat fruits or veggies (he does sometimes eat sweet potato fries). His sense of smell is really kicking in at 4 1/2 and now on top of the texture issues he is completely appalled by smells of certain foods. Apples and cheerios really send him over the edge. His diagnosis is Aspergers. Thanks for any input!
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Anonymous
| Have you tried an OT for this yet? |
Anonymous
| Well our OT told me to use deep pressure and a vibrating tooth brush b4 eating. I do not feel that doing this b4 every meal is practical in our home...I could try the vibrating tooth brush...did you find that it was effective? |
Anonymous
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New poster. Some of my child's eating issues were sensory and I do think the vibrating toothbrush may have helped.
Children's hospital has a good feeding program. We worked with someone there a long time ago-not sure if she is still there. |
Anonymous
Forgot to mention we worked with an OT not ST for the feeding issues. Our issues were when he was a baby/toddler struggling with texture, smells etc. We didn't know it at the time, but he did end up being high functioning on the spectrum. Technically Asperger's isn't a diagnosis according to new DSM, though most people still use the term. |
Anonymous
| Our SLP works with kids who have eating issues. Check out Progressive Speech Therapy LLC, located in Ashburn. |
Anonymous
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Anne Reynolds at ITS in Kensington.
http://www.its-dts.com/contactus.html After searching for two we found her agency in May. It took us several a months to corrdinate an appointment BUT she is the only practitioner who seems to understand my issues and has way of addressing them that not just behavior modification or playing with food. We have only two sessions with her so far but she really seems to have method that speaks to my sons needs. I hope this helps! Good luck! |
Anonymous
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Hi - we used speech therapist who used the SOS method Sequential Oral Sensory (SOS) approach. I actually think we were perhaps one of her first feeding clients - but wow she is good. It just goes to show, you need the therapist that is right for your child.
Feeding aversion is rarely caused by just one issue - we had a bunch of issues to work through (stealth reflux, general ot sensory stuff, ...) We are still figuring out some physical issues - does he have ee or just sensitive tummy or is it ee triggered by environmental allergens and not food as he does not fit the standard profile per allergist and gi...... still doing therapy but now it is more about adding complex dishes into the mix. I started this thread years ago - it shows what we did and also good ideas others had over the years. http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/98518.page the best advice i have is accept that it is a very complex puzzle and just work the layers of the puzzle. Addressing general sensory issues will help, having a very good family dinner routine will help, working on behavior and/or anxiety issues will help, having the child help buy food, cook food, grow food, will help. But progress is measured in milimeters and patience is required. Heck - i never ate certain foods as a child, but eat them now as an adult because I saw my parents eat and enjoy them while i was growing up. So, addressing feeding issues is a long term play - and progress will come in fits and starts. |
Anonymous
| We used The Language Experience in Rockville. But, not to be discouraging, we did not make progress on expanding the variety of foods my son will eat. They were great because we had limited benefits and we worked out a plan where the therapist trained us and we implemented the program and only went to therapy every other week. |
Anonymous
| Yes, there is a program at Children's. I don't know anything about it, but know someone who works there. Contact them for them info. Good luck! |
Anonymous
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PP (10/10/12 16:01)-the expert for feeding at Children's is Dr. Chatoor. She is a pioneer in Sensory Food Aversion and Infantile Anorexia. We have been meeting with her for over 6 months now, and while she has given us a much greater understanding of what our son is going through, the interventions she has suggested have only had a minimal affect. She is very behavioral based (though not as severe as feeding the clinic at Kennedy Kregger), and admittedly was unable to address his sensory/trust issues with eating. Her program use to have an OT that worked with them, but has since left to started her own private practice in Virginia. Her name is Randi Simenson. I live in MoCo so we didn't go to her, but instead followed up her her other recommendation in Kensington Maryland ITS services. The whole center is dedicated to Sensory integration. Ann Reyolds is their eating/speech therapist. FYI: try are super disorganized and you feel like your signing your life away with all of the paper work they make you fill out BUT she is the first person we have met seems to what she doing. I have not had this experience with anyone else.
Throughout this process we had looked into Children's OT and speech departments since they actually take insurance unlike ALL of the private facilities we've looked into. We were on there waiting list for a year in both departments and by the time our case was being considered we founds the do not do any sensory integration. Sorry if this was long winded. I hope this was helpful. Good luck! |
Anonymous
| We saw great progress working with Sheila Skinner at Georgetown for a kid with similar issues. |
Anonymous
This! We work with Anne for feeding issues. Ds is not a clear cut case, but most likely just isn't a very hungry kid and has some sensory issues on top of that. Anne is wonderful and always seems to have helpful approaches that do translate to the home environment. It is a slow process with feeding, but she is very good. We tried other approaches before (OT, ABA, GI/nutritionist) and had no luck there. |
Anonymous
| OP here! Thanks for all of the advice and input. I think we are going to try to get on the waiting list at our SLP Office. It is hard to know what to prioritize sometimes and what is worth the time and money...but I guess it is really all individual...based on your kiddo and the practitioner! |
Anonymous
| We work with Meghan McAteer at the Speech Language Experience in their Bethesda office. We are making slow progress with my two-year old. |