Feeding & Mealtime Therapy

What is a feeding therapist?
A feeding therapist is typically a speech pathologist or occupational therapist who has completed additional training in feeding and has a particular interest in the area.

​Our feeding therapists aim to collaborate with caregivers to create positive mealtime experiences that will help their child become confident, self-directed eaters who enjoy their meals, have strong eating skills, and are internally motivated to eat.

How can a feeding therapist help my child?
Our feeding therapists are skilled in helping children and families with:

• Feeling confident to introduce and explore a variety of food at a pace that honours their autonomy and well-being
• Offering parents and children practical strategies to support their child within mealtimes
• Fostering a nurturing mealtimes environment that is responsive to the child's cues
• Setting up the ideal seating and positioning for mealtimes
• Understanding the role that sensory preferences play within mealtimes and strategies to support this
• Making bottle and/or breastfeeding easier
• Strategies to help make chewing and swallowing safer and easier
• Reducing stress and anxiety at mealtimes for the whole family
• Feeding difficulties associated with tongue tie
• Transitioning to solids

"In order to be competent in feeding, children need to feel safe, enjoy positive relationships around food, enjoy mealtimes, and be allowed to develop skills at their own rate. This means that children need to be able to respond to their body’s cues confidently and develop their own preferences as their skills mature. Parental competence is important as well, as they learn to support children as they grow and change." - Responsive Feeding Therapy PRO

We have feeding therapists trained in approaches including:​

• The Get Permission Approach
• Responsive Feeding Therapy
• Neuro-affirming Approaches to Feeding
• SOS (Sequential Oral Sensory) Feeding Therapy