Child Feeding Concerns
Addressing Your Child Feeding Challenges
If you’re worried about your child’s eating, weight or both. You’ve come to the right place.
You love your child and want him to thrive and be healthy. By working with me to address feeding challenges, you will lay the foundation to give your child a lifelong healthy relationship with food. My child feeding philosophy is based in Ellyn Satter’s Division of Responsibility.
My Specialties
- Picky eating across the spectrum from typical to extreme.
- Food preoccupation and overeating.
- Underweight / poor weight gain
- Overweight / accelerated weight gain
Knowledge you will gain:
- How to serve meals so even the pickiest eaters won’t leave hungry.
- How to feed your child so she eats the right amount for her.
- Being considerate without preparing separate foods for your child.
- How to feed desserts responsibly.
- Your feeding job description vs. your child’s eating job description.
- How to serve treats, sweets, and other “forbidden foods.”
- How to organize snacks so kids are still hungry at mealtime.
- Ideas for balanced snacks.
- How to introduce new foods so they aren’t scary.
Here’s what you can expect from our visits:
Visit #1: Assessing Your Individual Feeding Challenges — 60-90 minutes.
It is normal for children to eat and grow normally. If they don’t, something is getting in the way. We will work to identify what that is and help you address the right areas for change. I will ask you many questions about your child’s eating history, family dynamics and more. In addition to providing answers in this first interview, you will need to complete/provide the following before our second appointment:
- A 7 day food record–record everything your child eats/drinks, amount, and times.
- A video recording of 2-3 family meals. Video lets us see your individual feeding/eating challenges. Parents often learn a lot from watching their child eat on video because it’s hard to notice certain things when you are involved in the situation. A meal counts as a “family meal” if your child is eating together with another caregiver. The whole family need not be present if it is not possible.
- Your child’s medical and growth records from birth to present — a signed medical release will allow your child’s provider to fax all this directly to me.
Before our second meeting, I will review the above as well as your child’s medical and growth records from birth to present – often this provides clues or facts that may have been forgotten. Having all this information will help us put together the puzzle and create a plan that fits your child’s needs.
Visit #2: Starting Your New Feeding Plan – approx 1 hour
Once I have all of the information above, we will meet to go over what I have found via the assessment and lay out the feeding plan. If possible, all the child’s caregivers who eat with, or are involved in feeding, your child should attend this session. As we begin the feeding plan, I will coach you and any other caregivers on how to implement new feeding strategies and answer any questions you have.
Continuing Feeding Support and Troubleshooting- 30 – 60 min
At this point you will have begun implementing new feeding strategies. These visits will identify other areas we need to address, answer new questions and give you support for the good work you’re doing. Both you and your child have begun learning new skills and perspectives about feeding and eating. Some of these will come easily, others will require practice and fine-tuning. I am here to support you and help you troubleshoot when a feeding issue arises.
By working with me and following your individual feeding plan, you can expect that your child will:
- develop a healthy relationship with food
- learn to eat appropriate amounts
- eat at mealtimes and not graze
- feel comfortable and relaxed at mealtime
- learn to eat what the family eats
- behave well at mealtime
- grow into the body that’s right for him
Does my child need to be present for every visit?
You will need to check with your insurance plan to see if your child must be present for Medical Nutrition Therapy or if caregivers’ presence will suffice. While I would like to meet your child initially, due to the sensitive nature of eating/weight topics, I prefer kids under 12 to not be present for the duration of the appointment. If they can wait in the lobby with a caregiver, that’s ideal. While insurance may require the child’s presence for at least part of the visit, it may be stressful for children to listen adults talk about them for over an hour. Even if they aren’t listening to our conversation, chances are if your child is under a certain age, he or she will be bored. Please bring headphones and an ipad/phone/laptop/dvd player or other quiet activities to keep your child occupied if they will be with us for the duration of our session.
How often will appointments be?
Generally, depending on your child’s nutrition status and your goals, I like to meet every 1-2 weeks. As we progress, we will meet less frequently.
Forms
Please fill out these forms prior to our first appointment as that will save us time. However, if you don’t get them all completed, we will take care of it in our session. I may also send you other forms by email.
Medical Release — fill one out for each provider that is pertinent to your treatment (therapist, doctor, etc)
Schedule your appointment below.
Appointments available in-person in College Place, or virtually (by video conference). By paying for/scheduling your appointment, you are agreeing to our Office and Informed Consent policies as listed above.