Eating and Drinking Difficulties

  • Difficulties with the physical act of swallowing food and/or drinks safely is known as ‘dysphagia’.
  • Sensory/behavioural difficulties affect a child's willingness/ability to engage with food, compared to dysphagia which is a difficulty with the physical act of swallowing safely.

Eating & drinking typical milestones.pdf [pdf] 168KB

Dysphagia

Signs of Dysphagia:

  • Coughing or choking before swallowing
  • Breathing difficulties when feeding
  • Back Arching
  • Gagging
  • Loss of food/liquid from mouth during mealtime
  • Difficulty chewing foods at age appropriate level
  • Noisy or wet vocal quality following eating
  • Extended time required for meal times

How can Speech and Language Therapists help?

We often work with colleagues of different professions for example, Dieticians, Occupational Therapists, Paediatricians and Physiotherapists to:

  • Assess a child’s swallowing difficulties
  • Improve safe swallow function
  • Improve nutritional intake
  • Provide tips for making mealtimes easier at home
  • Implement feeding/swallowing techniques
  •  Develop treatment plans based on each individual child’s needs

Please see our resources below to help children who have difficulties with their eating and drinking.

Eating and Drinking Downloads :

Sensory feeding difficulties

Sensory feeding difficulties:

Sensory/behavioural difficulties affect a child's willingness/ability to engage with food, compared to dysphagia which is a difficulty with the physical act of swallowing safely.

(*Video links below have been taken from: Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Children's Nutrition and Dietetics)

Information

Intervention

Support

Top Tips

Sensory feeding difficulties Downloads:

Useful Links

 Useful Websites: