Feeding Clinic for Children with Dysphagia
We offer a Feeding Clinic for children with dysphagia. Through the Clinic, we help families build more positive mealtime experiences, and help the child improve their relationship with food and eating skills.
What is dysphagia?
Dysphagia is a medical condition whereby a child has not developed the skills they need to manage either food or liquid. They may struggle with chewing or swallowing certain foods. This can put them at increased risk of choking and aspiration (food going down into the lungs). It can also make it difficult to get enough nutrition. Dysphagia can make mealtimes stressful for parents and children.
How does the feeding clinic work?
Our Speech and Language Therapist will start with an hour-long online consultation to discuss your child’s eating and drinking needs. We will discuss their early experiences with feeding, and any interventions that have already taken place to support their eating. This helps us get a full picture of your child’s broader needs and an understanding of the support they have had, currently have or are on a waiting list for.
We will then do a face-to-face mealtime assessment either at home or in your child’s education setting. The therapist will assess:
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your child’s feeding skills;
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your child’s swallow;
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your child’s response to different textures of food and fluid.
We observe your child, assessing the specifics of their skills with eating.
Following these assessments the therapist will feed back their findings, and give recommendations to reduce the risk of aspiration while developing feeding skills. We may also recommend further therapy sessions.
