As a vital member of the child’s care team, therapists stay in close contact with the child’s family in between appointments so that the therapy and strategies used can be changed as needed. While the child is learning skills in order to become a better eater, caregivers must learn the skills and strategies they can use at home in order to help the child progress and become a better eater and/or drinker. The child’s caregivers and therapist are a team, working together to make sure the child receives the therapeutic, physical, social and emotional support to improve his or her feeding skills and habits. The caregiver can expect to learn:
- Feeding strategies and general advice for eating at home.
- Tactics for addressing negative mealtime behaviors.
- How to continue encouraging the child to eat the new foods introduced during therapy at home.
- To keep a food log of what the child eats and how he or she acts at mealtime and reacts to foods (Grogan, 2023).
After the eval, the therapist who completed your child’s evaluation will make a recommendation for how often feeding therapy takes place and what the treatment plan will be. Therapy goals are written that guide the direction of therapy. The goals will include parental concerns, as well as therapist concerns for on track development (Grogan, 2023).
References:
Alisha Grogan MOT, OTR/L. (2023, November 7). Everything you need to know about feeding therapy. Your Kid’s Table. https://yourkidstable.com/feeding-therapy/