Feeding Therapy Poll

[A.Jewell]

I'm just curious about what your experience has been with your child.  My 12 month old DS has oral development delays and is in feeding therapy. I am wondering if this often leads to speech development delays as well.  Tell me about yours!

[KCMichigan]

Mine had FT from ages 2 to 3 for oral motor tone (could not chew well, gagged, trouble moving from pureed foods, etc). Her was related to severe reflux. She did not and does not have any speech delays. She does have fairly moderate GI problems and still struggles w/ reflux at age 5.75. She was a preemie and has had feeding/eating troubles since birth.

[A.Jewell]

Thanks for your response KCMichigan!  I'm sad to hear that your little one has had such a hard time, I bet nights have been very difficult for you guys too.  My son's seems to be related to GI problems as well, although not reflux, but sounds similar in that he gags, can't move food well in his mouth and has an aversion toward non-pureed foods.  I thought maybe low motor tone/function led to speech issues but it sounds like it didn't in your case.  I sure hope your daughters' reflux improves, that must be so hard.

[melissa17s]

I chose other.  DD went to a speech pathologist for therapy because she had gag at the front of her mouth and would not eat food.  At one year, she could speak full sentences, but could not eat anything with the exception of breast milk without vomiting.  

[KimPM]

Strangely enough, though feeding was a HUGE issue and he didn't know what to do with his mouth while eating - he had no trouble at all with speech. Even the therapists remarked how good his speech was. I guess they thought it was out of the ordinary enough to warrant that type of comment. So based on that, I'm guessing that normally you'd need both feeding and speech therapy - but in our case it was just feeding.

[Mosaic]

I voted that we don't know yet. DD is 15.5 mo, and she has, I dunno, maybe 2 words? I feel like she had more but is currently in the "I'd rather fling myself backward and scream and whine" phase of communication. In general she's been on the late side of normal in hitting milestones, but we'll have an evaluation in the next month or so to see how she's really doing.

And she's been in weekly (or more frequent) feeding therapy basically since birth.

[Mosaic]

Back with an update: DD is speech delayed as well. I don't think it's related to her feeding issues, but I guess we'll learn more when we start therapy for that!