by Katja | Aug 8, 2018 | Uncategorized
We recently wrote about how different the feeding therapy experience can be and how confusing it is for parents who may be simply handed a referral. One mom who described the eight months her son was in a behavioral feeding therapy program as “traumatic for us both,” was furious to learn that she had options. Her son thrived after a tongue-tie release procedure and responsive therapies that worked on healing his reluctance (worsened by coercive feeding and therapy), supporting appetite and decreasing anxiety. Most of our clients have “failed” months or years of various feeding therapies. Jenny was the 6th feeding therapist for a 3 year old client she worked with recently who made more progress in six weeks than he had in the three previous years. When you don’t know much about a program, and the website uses language that is confusing, or you don’t get a clear idea of what kinds of therapies they offer, you may need to dig further to find out if a therapist or program is a good fit for your family. Here are some questions you can ask and discussion points (link here: Finding Your Feeding Therapy Partner PDF) Of note, these are complex issues, and we go into this in depth in chapter eight in our book, Helping Your Child with Extreme Picky Eating. Sometimes, even if you are contemplating formal therapies, you can make progress at home. We practice Responsive Feeding and Therapies with our STEPs+ approach (including links if you’d like to learn more). If this is what you are looking for, here are some suggested questions to see if a potential therapist...
by Katja | Jul 12, 2018 | anxiety
We recently got a question from a mother whose daughter had a choking episode and is refusing to eat. “Our six year old had a choking episode two weeks ago, but the food popped out pretty quickly. She is now only drinking Pediasure. Our pediatrician is not concerned since she is drinking Pediasure (“Total nutrition” he said!), but our daughter is panicked about choking again and seems to be getting worse. We called the local eating disorder treatment center, and they can see her- in three months! We don’t know what to do!” (Assuming her weight is stable or minimal decline, and that her development and eating were typical before the aversive event, and assuming the pediatrician has ruled out any reason behind the choking event…) A few general thoughts for this mom and others with the same concern: You are right not to wait three months! Most children in this situation don’t need inpatient or intensive Eating Disorder treatment, but things can get worse quickly. This is not an uncommon event, but scary all around. EARLY support leads to best the outcome. Your doctor isn’t too worried, but you are seeing a dramatic difference and your gut says you need help. The phobia can become more entrenched the longer it goes on. (See case study below we wrote for doctors on Medscape for more. Part of why we are sharing this is for parents to have it to show to the child’s doctor if they need help finding resources, or having concerns taken seriously.) This is a traumatic event, and can take time to heal, but you should see steady progress with support. Find a therapist...
by Katja | Feb 13, 2018 | anxiety, extreme picky eating, low appetite, Uncategorized
Bethany’s Journal: Amari’s Journey of Healing Amari, age two, was adopted at age 14 months from Ethiopia and initially had some hoarding behaviors. After being home for about a year, her eating changed dramatically, with no identifiable cause. While underlying medical causes were being evaluated, Bethany needed help. The following are excerpts from Bethany’s notes and emails on the first few months during the transition from an anxious/pressured feeding relationship to one focused on routine, avoiding pressure, and healing anxiety. This post is largely excerpted from Katja’s first book Love Me, Feed Me, focused on adoptive and fostering families. Bethany used responsive, trust-based philosophies expanded upon in the STEPS+ approach in our book, Helping Your Child with Extreme Picky Eating. This post is for informational purposes, and not meant to replace care of the individual child. February 10, day one: A few months ago, she started to get pickier and ate less and less, eventually eating about five bites at each meal and down to two cups of milk a day and gaining nothing. She would pocket and take an hour to finish those bites. In one year home, she grew four inches and gained only nine ounces . . . We saw a nutritionist who told us how to sneak calories into her food. We saw a speech pathologist who determined that the issue was “psych” and barely glanced at her. In the last week, Amari has gotten SO much worse. She hardly drinks 1 and a half cups of milk/day, drinks nothing else, and takes about three bites at meals. I can force feed her more, but she gags constantly and...
