Feeding Therapy - Tarpon Springs,FL

Oh have I been where you are. You are so smart to do something now. When my 8 year old was a baby I had no clue what to do. Wish I knew then what I know now! I'm pretty sure OT's do feeding therapy never heard of speech therapists doing it. We went to All children's on Tampa rd they were wonderful. And it was my son's OT that worked with him. Some ideas for you to do at home are...find what textures she likes best. For my son it was crunchy so we hide things in toasted bread. Also if you wrap food in gauze and let her bite on it she gets the sensory input from the gauze and the flavor of whatever fruit or veggie you put in. Try a nuk before meals also. you let her bite and chew and the OT can show you how to massage the tongue to get her "ready" for textured foods. When my son got older we used a vibrating toothbrush. He is still very picky but tons better than he used to be.
H.

Hi J....All Children's Hospital has an excellent program for feeding therapy. They will require a script/prescription from your doctor and if you call they will tell you everything you need to have before your first visit. Depending on where you are, there are several All Children's satellite clinics everywhere. If you are in Clearwater/countryside/palm harbor....Foundations Therapy Clinic may also be able to help you find someone.
Mease Hospital in Countryside also has a great Speech Pathologist. I am a speech pathologist myself and would be happy to talk to you some more. Let me know and I will send you a private message with my contact info.

J.,

I would't get too worried just yet. Although I am not a Dr or therapist at all, I do know from my experience that is is completely normal for a 1 yr old not to be interested in table food. Many kids do not get an interest til much later while others seem to be wolfing down food at 8 months! Every kid is different, it's ok.

As for the gagging on stage 3 foods....my daughter did this as well. I could never get her to eat those processed jarred foods (stage 3) without gagging or choking. What I discovered with my daughter was that it was confusing to her as to whether she was supposed to just swallow or try to chew, since those foods are sort of a 'chunky' soft food. She did fine without gagging on totally pureed foods (similar to stage 1 & 2) but the stage 3 was a mix between a baby food and a solid and she never understood that, even at age 1.

Good luck with the feeding therapist, but don't get too stressed :-) Maybe try some different solids and see if there is any interest.... small chnks of well cooked potato, carrot, frozen peas/corn, honey cheerios, frozen blueberries crackers.... if she still isn't interested that's ok. If she is still breastfeeding, she is still getting very good nutrients and staying healthy anyway.

Best wishes!

before i go to speech therapy, i would take her to the doc and have them do a vss (video swallow study) to find the cause of her gagging on stage three foods at such an older baby age. then if the doc recommends it i would then go to the recommended speech therapist.