Professionals Level 1 – Feeding Building Blocks
Posted on: January 3rd, 2022
As your baby grows, your role and your baby’s role during meals change. Additionally, your baby will hopefully transition from a completely liquid diet to a table food diet in the first eighteen months of life. This process involves your baby learning many skills along the way. Because of these changes, our role as parents…
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Posted on: December 9th, 2021
Holidays can be rough on children with feeding difficulties, and every year around this time, we are thinking through ways to make the holiday food and gathering easier for your children. We have written articles (insert here) to help with the holidays but wanted to address some ways you can start getting your children ready…
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Posted on: November 18th, 2021
Dear Dr. Toomey, I had a question about some general strategies to support learning to eat without screens during meal times. I just evaluated a 4-year-old child with Autism who eats his preferred foods with a screen and this is the only way he remains at the table. He has scheduled meal times which he…
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Posted on: November 18th, 2021
18-MONTH-OLD CHILD TAKEN OFF G-TUBE BUT ONLY DRINKING SMOOTHIES QUESTIONING IF SHOULD REFER TO IN-PATIENT INITIAL EMAIL Dear Dr. Toomey, I have an 18-month-old child that I am working with through early intervention. He was on a feeding tube and was taken off about 8 months, ago. He is now drinking smoothies through a honey…
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Posted on: September 19th, 2021
There are many great kitchen tools that can help your picky eater learn about and explore new foods. Giving a child a tool can often be the difference between tears (or leaving the table or throwing food on the floor) and happily interacting with the new food. I would encourage you to go through your…
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Posted on: August 19th, 2021
When I am teaching families about Family Meals, the idea of doing Family Style Serving often feels difficult. We know that mealtimes are one of the more stressful times of the day for families, let alone families who have one or more picky eaters! The thought of adding another element to the routine (and DISHES)…
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Posted on: July 22nd, 2021
Download the handouts for each section below: Sensorimotor Magical Thinkers Concrete Thinkers
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Posted on: July 22nd, 2021
There are so many kids’ products on the market, and it is hard to know what is helpful and what isn’t. We have listed some of our favorite utensils for learning to eat below. Baby Spoons For baby’s first purees, look for spoons that are long and thin. They only need to hold a small…
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Posted on: July 22nd, 2021
There are a few activities that spark interest at almost any age, especially in these summer months. That is gardening and making something to freeze! There is something so curious and intriguing about watching food grow and then watching it transform. Some of the best learning about food happens in these natural, unforced environments. It…
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Posted on: July 5th, 2021
Let’s look at some therapeutic games that you can utilize in your therapy to help progress a child’s oral motor skills. Remember, that when a child gets up to the oral motor steps on the Steps to Eating Hierarchy, you still want these games to be fun, enjoyable, and playful. Sometimes, we tend to get…
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