Innovative Therapy Resources

Swallowing pills can be an adventure! 💊

When I learned that breathing and swallowing were CONNECTED...🤯

This goes for if when you're eating you feel like you get food stuck on the way down too... But when you take a pill, place it on your tongue, take a sip of water. Then, nice big inhale through your nose, swallow the pill, then big exhale out.

I used to choke on pills all of the time! When I implemented this, my anxiety went down and the so did the pills!

Also! With those lighter pills that float, put your chin down and do the pill swallowing process, that way gravity will allow it to float towards the back of the mouth. Heavier pills... do the opposite, tilt your head back slightly and follow that process!

Best of luck and happy swallowing! 😛

My goal this month is to share a little about everyday! Today I'd love to talk about just SOME of the things I help families with in pediatric feeding and swallowing disorders

For starters these topic areas don't even start to cover the many things that can be accomplished in feeding therapy but they are some of my favorites!

Expanding diet and variety is so important for so many reasons. It is less stressful for child and caregiver, it allows to child to be able to explore safely with new foods, and also allows the child a sense of control in how they allow these foods to be in their environment and how they are apart of their meals.

Gagging and choking during a meal for a new eater can mean that the child is learning how to move this new food around and is NORMAL! It is when we see this persists and see signs that may indicate that the food is going into the lungs (or aspirated) that we take a bigger look into things. Testing for aspiration may include but is not limited to and oral feed observation and a modified barium swallow. Feeding evaluations can be very useful even if aspirating isn't a concern to help navigate how and when to introduce new foods.

Improving oral motor movements can help decrease gagging and choking during meals. We achieve this through using oral stimulation, which is essential to wake up our mouth before and during meals, and other strategies such as positioning or breath support!

Of course the outcome of feeding therapy is to increase quality of life! Food is so much a part of most celebrations and when we can ENJOY eating in a SAFE way then we can relax! 💗

I am back and with a new name, and at what a better time that better hearing and speech month! I look forward to providing resources and services to those in need for feeding and swallowing, to fluency, to AAC, to articulation...you name it and I've got resources!