Speech pathologist, Staci Istre, works with her patient and caregiver in a special feeding room geared to meet our patient’s unique needs.
Elite Therapy Center’s Elite Cafe Feeding Program provides trained therapists who specialize in pediatric feeding difficulties and associated diagnoses. Our personalized program identifies feeding difficulties and determines the underlying cause (sensory, oral motor, behavioral, combination) by performing an initial evaluation and developing treatment goals that are appropriate to the child’s unique feeding needs.
Signs and symptoms of feeding difficulties or swallowing disorder include:
- Refusing to eat
- Eating very little for a prolonged period of time
- Spitting out food
- Frequent coughing or throat clearing during or soon after eating
- Excessive drooling
- Food leaking from mouth
- Refusing to eat certain textures or temperatures of food
- A “wet” or “gurgly” sounding voice or cry after eating
- Excessive spitting up or vomiting after eating
- Pocketing food
- Inability to sustain nutrition via PO diet (feeding tube, PediaSure supplements, etc.)
Elite Therapy works to reach person goals:
- Identify the difference between oral motor deficits, sensory concerns and behavioral avoidance of feeding.
- Identify important information to gather during initial evaluation.
- Identify appropriate ways to write goals.
- Identify when to refer to another discipline.
Our patients can meet milestones through:
- Steps to sensory feeding
- How to branch to new foods
- Oral motor exercises