What Happens in a Feeding Therapy Session
Inside a Typical Feeding Therapy Visit
Feeding therapy is designed to make eating feel safe, doable, and more enjoyable. Sessions are child-led and relationship focused, with goals tailored to your child’s unique needs, growth, and family routines. The first priority is comfort. Therapists look for signs of stress, adjust the environment, and honor your child’s pace so trust can build.
- Conversation and history: Medical background, mealtime routines, and your top concerns.
- Observation: How your child sits, breathes, chews, and reacts to smells, textures, and sounds.
- Oral motor check: Jaw, tongue, and lip movements that support chewing, sipping, and swallowing.
- Sensory exploration: Touching, smelling, and playful interaction with foods before tasting.
- Skill practice: Cup drinking, straw use, utensil handling, pacing, and bite sizes.
- Caregiver coaching: Simple language, routines, and setups to reduce pressure and boost confidence.
- Home plan: Clear, bite-sized steps that fit your family’s schedule and budget.
Progress is not only measured in bites. It is measured in comfort, curiosity, and calm mealtimes.
What are the benefits? Over time, families often notice less mealtime stress, more consistent nutrition, a wider variety of accepted foods, and better self-feeding skills. Stronger oral motor control can lead to safer swallowing and fewer gagging episodes. Posture and seating are optimized, which helps energy, attention, and endurance for eating. For children with sensory differences, gradual exposure turns new foods from scary to familiar.
Feeding challenges are common among autistic children, with studies reporting high rates of selective eating and mealtime distress (Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders).
What you can do between visits
Keep meals predictable with short, timed durations and gentle endings. Offer one safe food alongside one learning food, then let your child choose how to engage. Model tasting without pressure, use tiny portions to lower the stakes, and allow playful exploration away from the table. Track wins like touching or smelling a new food, not just swallowing.
Bottom line: A supportive, stepwise approach can turn mealtimes into a place of practice rather than conflict. With consistent routines and skills that meet your child where they are, eating becomes a skill that grows with them.