November 21-23, 2019 – Orlando, FL – American Speech Language Hearing Association

Seminars & Events

November 21-23, 2019 – Orlando, FL – American Speech Language Hearing Association

Aug 1

Did you know there are over 1 million colors in a rainbow? 🌈 And if you’re
lucky enough to see a double rainbow, like the one over my house last night... that’s 2 million beautiful reminders that
nature is full of surprises.

If you’re raising a child who struggles with trying new foods, I hope you’ll take this as your reminder not to give up.

Progress in feeding isn’t usually one big, dramatic moment.

It’s built through hundreds of tiny, patient moments:
💛 One meal.
💛 One playful exposure.
💛 One gentle nudge.
💛 One opportunity to feel safe around food.

Then one day... your child surprises you.

It might be a lick.
A tiny bite.
Or simply sitting at the table with a little less worry than yesterday.

Those moments matter. Feeding therapy helps kids make progress, but not every kiddo needs feeding therapy. Sometimes just expert strategies are enough to help experience these moments of success! Thanks for following me for tips.🤍

🌈 By the way...if you’re looking for guidance or if you’re a therapist
getting started in feeding therapy - my most popular on-demand course,
Feeding Development: Understanding the Spectrum of Picky Eating, is 50% off right now! If you’d like practical, evidence-based strategies to help your child (or the families you support) build a healthier relationship with food, comment RAINBOW and I’ll send you the link and the discount code.

✨ Be sure you’re following me so the discount code can make it to your DMs!

And if someone you know could use a little extra hope today, please share
this with them. 💛

Thanks to my friend @beachauthor for taking this video last night! Be sure
to follow her if you love reading like I do!

🥰Melanie

Melanie Potock, picky eating, feeding therapy, responsive feeding, toddler
nutrition, pediatric feeding, food anxiety, feeding development, parent
support ...

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Jul 31

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I won’t stitch the feeding therapy video - you’ve probably seen it - a feeding therapist who appears to be overly assertive in getting a child to eat while another adult holds down the child’s hands.💔This is a difficult video to watch, and a difficult one for me to comment on. I’ve wrestled with this for days.

A short clip never gives us the whole picture. We don’t know the child’s
history, the treatment plan, what happened before or after this moment, or the clinical reasoning behind what we’re seeing. The family who loves this
child is just trying to help this kiddo - let’s remember that.

But, my DMs are blowing up, asking me to do something.

So, because this reel is being widely shared, I want families to hear
something important:

This is not what MOST feeding therapy looks like in the USA today.

I’m not saying it never happens, but the majority of specialists are not
using such aggressive techniques.

In 25+ years as a pediatric feeding therapist in the U.S., and after
teaching more than 25,000 therapists over the years, I have seen our field
continue to move toward approaches that respect a child’s communication,
regulation and autonomy while still helping children take the next
developmental step.

♥️Feeding therapy can absolutely include gentle nudges. Children sometimes need support tolerating discomfort as they learn something new.

But there is a meaningful difference between gently challenging a child and
physically preventing a child from responding to that challenge.

This video does not represent the feeding therapy I teach. I’ve never used these methods and I know this is the case for the majority of feeding specialists today.♥️

My concern? I don’t want parents who see it to assume that this is what will happen if they seek feeding therapy for their child in the USA.

I’d be so grateful if you would share this post with your own followers, to
reassure our communities that feeding therapy can be, and most often is,
respectful of each child and their unique skill sets.

♥️Melanie

Melanie Potock, feeding therapy, pediatric feeding therapy, feeding
therapist, picky eating, responsive feeding, child autono ...

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One of the easiest ways to help a hesitant eater become more comfortable around food is to take the pressure off eating altogether.

🛒Pretend grocery store is one of my favorite activities because children can interact with food in a completely different way.
✨They’re learning that food is interesting...not stressful.
✨They’re hearing food names over and over while sorting, comparing, counting, pretending, and making choices.
✨Every playful interaction builds familiarity, and familiarity often comes before willingness.

As a pediatric feeding specialist, I also love grocery play from a speech and language perspective because children are practicing so many important communication skills:
🥕 Expanding vocabulary (foods, colors, categories)
🛒 Following and giving directions
🍎 Asking and answering questions
💬 Using conversational turn-taking
🧺 Sequencing (“First we shop, then we pay, then we bring the groceries home.”)
🍌 Pretend play and symbolic thinking
🔢 Early math concepts like counting, matching, and sorting

For children with feeding challenges, pretend grocery store can become a safe place to explore foods before they’re ever expected to taste them. The conversations we have about food matter just as much as the bites we hope children will eventually take.

💕 Want to set up a tiny pretend grocery store in your playroom? Comment GROCERY and I’ll send you the link to all my top QUALITY picks, including the cutest little cart you’ve ever seen!

♥️Melanie

Melanie Potock, picky eating, pretend grocery store, feeding therapy, food exposure, toddler activities, speech language development, pretend play, food play, pediatric feeding specialist, vocabulary development, early language, child development ...

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