Children with oral motor delays or feeding issues

Okay, I myself don't have children with feeding issues/oral motor delays, but my niece does, and I care for a little girl who does. They both see a speech therapist, (sounds little strange, I thought) and both have actually been sent to the Pediatric Gastroenterologist. There, they work on plans for feeding etc, and do like a feeding clinic, if you will, where they try to make it a little more fun. With both kids that I've had experience with, they just say at home to just encourage them to play with the food, and to basically let them try to tell us when they want to eat something. Although I must say the one little girl I care for, does not necessarily eat the best things! A lot of cereal, crackers, and M&M's. She never really learned to eat and swallow, so it's been a process. Hope that helps a little. I would guess your son is already under the care of a doctor, so you may be trying the same things as described here. I do feel for you, as it is very difficult as a parent, when you want so bad for your child to be able to do something, and they just can't/won't, and you can't do it for them. I hope it gets better!

Our son, who is 19 months, has HUGE feeding issues. He has once again stopped taking the bottle, so we have to Thank God that we had his feeding tube placed or we would be back in the hosp. again.
We have someone come into our home and we also attend the feeding clinic at the childrens clinic. There are alot of things we do. My son will not eat anything. Your lucky if he will put something in his mouth to eat. This wk so far, he has taken 7 bites of things and that is it. He is licking things, which is positive.
We just put things on our sons tray, if he chooses to pick it up, he does, if not, ok. He does like to play and get messy with the food, but will just not eat it anymore. He was doing great for 6 months and then it all went away again.
Feel free to pm me if you have any questions!

My friends little boy had poor muscle tone in his mouth which caused trouble eating and talking. His theripst had him blow bubbles all the time. They did it in the tub and outside. The other thing they had him do was try to blow canned whipped cream off a plate (done outside of course). They also would put whipped cream around (different spots each time) his mouth and he would have to use his tongue to try and lick it off. They also told her to let him chew bubble gum, helps strengthen the muscles.

Just wanted to put this info out there. If you suspect ANY sort of delay, disability, ect with your children, please contact the Birth to Three office in SF. They will help you with PT, medical equipment, and the cost of all these if you qualify!! My son has torticollis and wears a helmet for flat head and he gets PT through CCHS and the cost of the helmet was covered for us! Thank God!
~Amy~

My oldest has an oral motor and eating delay. She has never been a good eater since birth. She sees speech therapy twifce a week and occupational therapy once a week through birth to three. They've gotten her diffent "talk tools" its a company but they had us work with straws and chewiesn to strengthen her mouth and get her tongue moving. She also goes to the sanford childrens clinic and sees Dr Neidich with a feeding clinic. Hope this helps its acctually nice to know were not the only ones that have a picky child.

My son was born with a brain malfomation called Holoprosencephaly (HPE for short), he has many, many health problems and one being oral motor. We were told he might lose the ability to eat anything by mouth but after lots of ST and OT he is doing pretty good. We go to CCHS for OT and his ST he had from birth to three worked alot on oral motor issues. We used different vibrating things, gum rubbing on the inside cheeks and in OT now they use one of those baby mesh bag things, I can't think of the name but you find them in the baby isle.
My son takes a bottle and eats baby food but loves Gerber cereal puffs. He isn't able to eat lots of foods because of his DI.

My son is 6 years and just had an OT eval for sensory at CCHS. We thought maybe he had sensory issues that were keeping his diet so limited and he was unable to spit and if he had something in his mouth he didn't like would throw up his whole meal. We found out that it is an oral aversion due to tongue weakness and poor movement of the tongue. We were given lots of written information and exercises for him to do at home to help strengthen his tongue. They were really helpful and even told us of a plan to re-introduce foods once he is stronger. Hope this helps.

I am an OT with experience in feeding issues. I would make sure that your therapist has had experience in working with children with feeding issues. It sounds like your son may have oral motor weakness. If this is the case, I would look into having him begin a talk tools program for oral motor strengthening. This is a fun program for kids that uses horns, bubbles, straws and other tools so it is less threatening for children. I have used it with great success. I would recommend outpatient therapy at Children's Care in conjuction with the therapy that you are currently getting.
GTBmyloves