Let’s Eat- Feeding Therapy | Therapist

Let’s Eat- Feeding Therapy

Phone: +61 2 4940 6515

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25.01.2022 School holiday clubs! We had a wonderful kids dinner club last week, with so many photos and gorgeous videos- we had to create a video. Thank you Ability Focus Occupational Therapy for another fun group. ... Thank you to the parents and kids for sharing these moments for our video. Val and Ash- let’s eat! Feeding therapy Rachel and Claire- Ability focus OT.

23.01.2022 Happy Dysphagia day! Today is Swallowing awareness day and a really important day for us as Feeding Speech Pathologists. Did you know that we swallow between 500-700 times a day? ... 3 times an hour when we are asleep Once a minute when we are awake And even more when we are eating. If you know someone who has had a stroke, brain injury or other neurological changes or even like this child who has special needs - their swallowing coordination can change and sometimes result in liquid going down into their lungs (called aspiration). Depending on how severe it is, these kids and adults can’t have regular fluids and have to have every drink thickened to help them swallow safely. This amazing kid had successfully passed an X-ray swallow (VFSS) to graduate to regular fluids. In this video, he is learning to drink from a new drink bottle. We are focusing on building age appropriate feeding equipment as he was on thickened fluids for many years from a specialised cup. It’s a big step for him and I’m so proud of his success and perseverance. How important is our swallow right? We just don’t think about it until it goes wrong. For Feeding Speech Pathologists, this is an area that we train in and one that we are super passionate about here at Let’s eat! Have a great day, Val, Ash and Laura #letseatfeeding

18.01.2022 Have you tried the new broccoli chips from Aldi? Here is a video of Ash and Laura trying it live- they were initially unsure but it was actually delicious! Have you tried it yet?

16.01.2022 Chocolate! How to support a positive feeding mindset with Easter and chocolate. Our Let’s Eat top tips. 1. FOOD LANGUAGE ... Tip number one is the importance of good language- Don’t talk to your child about chocolate being unhealthy or bad for you. Chocolate is delicious and a wonderful celebration food (and a great source of dairy- calcium!). Please also be mindful about how you speak about chocolate to adults- you don’t need to burn the calories by exercising because you ate too much chocolate or eat less chocolate because it will make you fat. The way you speak about food impacts on how your child will see it with their own body image. 2. ACCESS Tip 2- access to chocolate. Do you know what? It’s once a year- so it’s okay if your child eats chocolate (and a lot of it on Easter Sunday). Here is the thing- the more you forbid a food, the more a child desires it. So enable access and don’t worry- it’s okay if they over eat- it’s one day. 3. Next week, take the remainder eggs and chocolate and offer it at snack times with other foods eg crackers, fruit and cheese. You might find that after a day of over eating, this forbidden desire decreases and your child eats the crackers and fruit equally as the chocolate. This is a healthy approach to eating and one that we want for all kids. 4. Last tip? Children who graze are not hungry and in fact don’t eat well or enough over a period of time. So try as much as you can to have structured times for eating- play- and sleep. Remember snacks support appetite but grazing does not. Wishing you and your family a safe and very happy Easter, see you next week- Val, Ash and Laura- Let’s Eat! Feeding therapy team #letseatfeeding

16.01.2022 Chocolate nests- you know the ones right? It got me thinking about fussy eaters. If you’re working on exploring a new food, almost anything can be coated in chocolate and set in an Easter egg nest in the fridge. The traditional recipe is great for exploring crunchy noodles (for kids who don’t eat noodles or pasta), and the adapted recipe with these cooking photos is using cornflakes. You could pick any iron fortified cereal and have a messy exploration cooking session with... your child. Remember it’s about exploring and not eating (yet for your child). Your child can smell, feel and hear the sound of the cereal while you crunch on it - with no chocolate and with chocolate coating. And if they want to- they can do the same tasting exploration. But don’t tell them- model it and then just wait... if they feel ready and brave - they just might.... when they do, be the cool calm chicken and talk about the chocolate flavour, exploring possibilities - what would happen if we added white chocolate? Coconut? Sultanas? We are having lots of fun in the let’s eat kitchen this week- give the Easter egg baskets a go, 100g melted chocolate with 100g dry Chinese fried noodles or any cereal of your choice, mix and set in the fridge for 20mins until they harden. You can do them in patty cases, on a biscuit or straight onto a tray lined with baking paper. Enjoy the messy cooking activity

14.01.2022 First business meeting for 2021 focusing on Professional development for the team. Today we - 1. Analytically looked at bottle teats and dummies on flow rate and shape - thinking about when we might use it with babies. We also reviewed the latest journal articles on this topic (next journal club agenda item). I will place my amazing research supervisor’s article Dr Jeanne Marshall et al 2020 (hot off the press) in the comments section. 2. Discussed Circle of security in feed...ing and parent coaching - I did this 4 day training course 3 years and I still rave about it. If you haven’t done it- look into it! 3. And lastly a new therapy tool- using the Telescope by @Hollandhealthcareinc which clips on to our iPhones, allows us to illuminate the mouth with the bright Throatscope torch but also take a photo! How fabulous is that? We are so excited to use this new tool in our clinic. Val, Ash and Laura- Let’s Eat! Feeding therapy

13.01.2022 We are so happy to introduce Laura, our new Let’s Eat therapist. Laura is a Speech Pathologist with a special interest in paediatric feeding. She has a strong background in special needs and like us, love nothing better than working with babies and children with feeding and fussy eating difficulties. Some of our clients have already met her this week and it is just wonderful to see her laugh and support these little ones with their therapy goals.... We have put together a few videos of Laura which we will show you in coming days. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s broccoli chips tasting (yes we had her taste a new product on her first day yesterday live on camera - she was a ). Laura will be working from Tuesday - Friday, 8am - 6pm. She is also on outreach on Thursday from 2-6pm. So if you would like home visits for your child, give us a call. Our secretaries are working through the waiting list and booking new appointments. Have a lovely week, Val, Ash and Laura - Let’s Eat! Feeding Therapy. Ph- 4940 6515

09.01.2022 Hi, I’m Laura and I look forward to meeting your kids in our Let’s Eat! clinic. It’s tricky for little kids when meeting a new face so I thought I would tell you a bit about myself. Prior to becoming a Speech Pathologist, I worked in the hospitality industry with texture food and fluid modification. Some of you may know that this is often done for children or adults with disabilities who have dysphagia (swallowing difficulties). Making food delicious regardless if it’s a pur...ée (for an adult) or thickening it and chilling it so it’s palatable for a child is super important to me. I am excited to work in special needs as a Speech Pathologist now because my work history brings different insights to modified diets. Fun facts for your child about me... I have 3 pet chickens at home, Kora, Tweedle-Dee and Bunny. Yes, I have a chicken named Bunny. And my favourite thing to do is go to Timezone! Making sessions fun and exciting (while working on the hard and challenging area for your child with feeding) is something I know I strive to do in therapy sessions. When children are having fun, their brains are filled with the happy brain chemicals (serotonin) so hard things like tasting a new food can seem less scary- that’s the theory at least Here is to laughter and fun while nailing those feeding goals. See you in clinic soon, Laura

09.01.2022 We can’t believe it’s February already! We’re having another awesome week at Let’s Eat. I was bursting with pride after an appointment with one of my patients. This 10 year old with Autism and Anxiety finds food so challenging. His anxiety means that he can’t even engage in conversations about food without shutting down - fight/flight mode! We’ve spent time just eating preferred foods together, talking about similar foods and inching our way towards his goals. ... Then this week - breakthrough! We had a really hard food on the table - carrot sticks and as he was about to pick one up he just paused. Then he looked at mum and I and said see when I go to do this, my brain just stops. This is the first time he has been able to articulate these feelings in therapy. After saying what he did, we just chatted about the carrot until his anxiety subsided. Then on his own terms, he just picked it up and took a bite. One bite was enough for him today but what a huge step. WOW! this is the power of waiting, giving our children time and helping them to find the language to describe how they are feeling. At Let’s Eat, we see lots of kids who are really anxious about foods and it looks different for all of them - it might be not talking, running away or crying. But we know where there is anxiety, we can help our kids to find their bravery and bravery beats anxiety any day! Ash

08.01.2022 Who says cookie cutters are for cookie dough only? You can use cutters for all sorts of things and more importantly for fussy eaters, it helps peak their interest.... bunny rabbit pizzas anyone? Flower toast?... Easter egg flat bread? Here we are making spelt flour cookies (because I ran out of plain white flour ). But you know what? They turned out perfectly and tasted just as yummy especially with smarties on top. So give it a go- think broadly with your cookie cutters and have fun in the kitchen this Easter with your kids. Ps- Easter themed cutters from Kmart $3- bargain! And cookie dough recipe in the latest Woolworths Easter magazine.

05.01.2022 Do you know what I love most about running a business? Seeing a therapist grow in her skill level exponentially. At Let’s Eat! We take supervision and training very seriously. All new staff start out with weekly 1 -2 hours supervision for clients and then also have weekly 2 hour PD feeding training sessions with me. Then every fortnight we meet as a team to review a journal article and critically analyse the latest evidence around a topic This ensures their clients get time f...or discussion around session planning but for Laura, she also gets focused time to build her knowledge of feeding. Paediatric feeding is not something that gets taught in any great length at university and as any therapist knows, doing one course isn’t enough to teach them anything. Here is Laura with her Let’s Eat training folder - filled with different assessment and therapy teaching programs. Today our topic was focused on building her knowledge of responsive feeding. She told me that she has finished her week with fire in her belly! And that makes me because she is just as passionate about paediatric feeding as Ashleigh and I. Which makes for excellent feeding therapists who continually problem solve and do the best they can for their patients. What an amazing week! Val

03.01.2022 Goodness it’s Friday! This week I presented to 3rd year Speech Pathology students at the University of Newcastle. I always love presenting to students, it’s a wonderful way to inspire them with the same passion that we have in paediatric feeding. As uni students we don’t get enough training in this specialist area so I gave it my best go- how many practical tips and underpinning of theory can I teach you in 2 hours. Val #letseatfeeding... Here is a resource I spoke about - https://infantandtoddlerforum.org//3.5_Developmental_Stage