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The Feeding Clinic

 Visit the feeding center website at: www.CarolinaFeeding.com

Experience specialized clinic based Feeding Therapy at our Statesville Speech & Feeding Center locateds in downtown Statesville at 129 N. Tradd St, Statesville, NC 28677. Clinic based therapy offers fewer distractions and specialized feeding equipment for feeding success.

Our feeding specialists have a vast array of experience with swallowing disorders, food aversions, NICU babies, tube dependency, difficulty transitioning to textures, and more. They also have specialized training certifications in the area of feeding and swallowing disorders. 

A referral to a feeding specialist may be appropriate for any child whose parents have concerns regarding their eating and drinking or a growing frustration with the overall feeding process. There can be many underlying causes or factors to a child’s difficulty with feeding including medical, behavioral, and environmental.

Some red flags indicating a need for a Feeding Assessment:
• Poor weight gain or weight loss
• Children who are tube fed
• Children with a history of digestive difficulty, gastrointestinal difficulty, or oral-facial surgeries

Warning signs for Feeding Difficulties by age:
0-6 months
• Coughing throughout a meal or when drinking
• Discomfort during the meal (crying, arching back, vomiting, gagging)
• Spitting up frequently after meals
• Frequent abnormal bowel movements (constipation, diarrhea, loose stool)

6-8 months
• All of the above, plus…
• Limited diet (prefers to eat same foods, same colors or same textures)
• Gagging on new or non-preferred foods
• Limited variety of textures, prefers smooth foods or eating only crunchy food
• Excessive fluid intake but minimal food intake (only drinks from bottle or sippy cup)
• Fail to transition to baby food purees by 8-10 months
• Fail to transition to any table food/finger food by 12 months

12-18 months
• All of the above, plus…
• Fail to transition to all table food diet by 16 months
• Continued bottle/breast feeding by 16 months without ability or interest in cup drinking
• Excessive fluid intake with minimal food intake
• Decreased chewing skills (eating only easy to swallow foods, poor chewing skills after 12 months)
• Food refusals (pushing away/throwing foods, crying, tantrums, swatting spoon)

18-24 months
• All of the above, plus…
• Diet of less than 20 foods
• Refusing to self feed with fingers or utensils

24-36 months
• All of the above, plus…
• Diet of less than 20-30 different foods
• Need for Pediasure or other supplement for weight gain