Editor’s Note:  This excellent article by friend of PediaStaff,  Melanie Potock, MA CCC-SLP, appeared today on Fooducate.   Excellent for sharing with the parent’s of your kiddos.   We at PediaStaff, love Melanie and the work she does at My Munch Bug.  Help support her continued success by voting for her in Martha Stewart’s “American Made” competition through August 13th.   It’s really easy.  No involved registration.  Let’s help get an SLP and feeding therapy expert – that we know and love – featured on Martha Stewart.com!
 
[Source:  Fooducate]
by Melanie Potock, MA, CCC-SLP
Tried all the “expert tips” on how to get your kid to eat vegetables or become a more adventurous eater?  Shopped together, gardened together, cooked together?  Created elaborate bento boxes that rival fine art?  Why is it that your picky eater is still stuck on chicken nuggets and refuses to take just one bite of a new food, when you’ve followed the advice of so many authorities on raising a healthy eater?
I’m one of those “experts” and here’s my own piece of advice: No two kids are alike.  For many kids,  it’s a joyful process discovering new foods!  But for others, it’s more complicated.  As a pediatric feeding therapist, my first role is to be a “feeding detective.”  When I meet a child for the first time, my job is to assess much more than just what foods he will or will not eat.  Assessing WHY a child won’t eat requires investigating three areas directly related to eating:  physiology, motor skills and behavior.
Physiology:  Simply put, I ask myself  “How does this little guy’s body function?”  I consider the whole child in a multitude of ways and one example is the gastrointestinal system.  If the child is coming to me for any sort of difficulty eating, I always ask that the parents to consult with a pediatric GI physician.  Even if the
Read the Rest of this Article on Fooducate.com
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