Health and Wellness

Does your child struggle at mealtime? Do they refuse new foods or struggle with the daily routine of mealtime? How do you know if they are just being picky or if there is a true feeding problem to be concerned about? Did you know that feeding is not instinctive and is a learned skill? It is important for your child to have all the bodily functions needed to feed themselves including oral motor, positioning, sensory processing, fine motor, cognition, etc. If they are lacking in any of the areas, then this could be the root cause of their feeding difficulties.

Red flags to watch for:

• Ongoing poor weight gain, weight loss
• Ongoing choking, gagging, coughing, vomiting during meals
• More than one incident of gastro-nasal reflux
• History of traumatic choking incident
• History of eating and breathing problems with ongoing respiratory issues
• Inability to transition to baby food purees by 10 months
• Inability to accept any table food solids by 12 months
• Inability to transition to a cup by 16 months
• Has not weaned off most/all baby foods by 16 months
• Aversion/avoidance of all foods in specific texture or food group
• Food range <20 foods, especially if foods are being dropped
• An infant who cries and/or arches at most meals
• Family is fighting about food/feeding
• Parent repeatedly reports the child as difficult for everyone to feed

If you notice any of these risk factors, you should talk to your child’s primary care physician about being referred to an SOS trained feeding therapist. The SOS (Sequential-Oral-Sensory) Approach to Feeding is for treating children with feeding difficulties and it has been shown through studies to help improve your child’s ability to conquer mealtimes and intake of new foods.

SOS highlights the typical development of feeding/eating as the best initial blueprint for intervention:

• Following typical development as our “road map” to help teach the skills for feeding and eating, the SOS Developmental Food Continuum outlines the progression of the skills acquired as children successfully transition from breast/bottle feeding to eating textured table foods.
• Understanding and recognizing that each child’s individual neurodivergence and family circumstances will guide intervention when helping this child along their own unique journey. Intervention strategies are adapted to support each child in achieving nutrition in a way that best fits their body and environment.
• Appreciating that eating and feeding are skill-based tasks. When children have difficulties eating/feeding, it is due to physical challenges and/or skill-based difficulties interfering with this child’s feeding development. Research indicates that feeding problems are rarely caused by the parent/caregiver and are NOT solely due to behavioral issues (

This approach to feeding believes that every child and family has unique strengths to help children learn to eat at a pace that works best for their body. It uses intrinsic motivation and play-with-a-purpose to build skills for eating. It is important to have parents or caregivers involved to transition care and changes to the home and even school environment.

Morgan Faulkner, Occupational Therapist, offers these services to patients close to home at Grant Regional Health Center. Give us a call today at (608) 723-3236 to learn more about Occupational Therapy at Grant Regional and whether it may be right for your child.