Medical Concerns

Blogs on Medical Concerns

Medical Concerns

Study Up on PANDAS: A Little-Known Disorder With Big Effects

By Melanie Potock Tomorrow—October 9—is PANDAS/PANS Awareness Day. Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated With Streptococcal Infections (PANDAS) includes a little-known set of symptoms that occur when strep creates inflammation in...

Medical Concerns

What Is Tongue-Tie?

By Rebecca Desfosse Could tongue-tie be affecting your baby’s ability to breastfeed? Here’s everything you need to know about this common but often overlooked condition. Read More on Care.com >>...

Medical Concerns

Tip Back That Tongue! The Posterior Tongue Tie and Feeding Challenges

By Melanie Potock In a March 2015 post titled Just Flip the Lip, we explored how the band of tissue or “frenum” that attaches the upper lip to gum tissue...

Medical Concerns

Just Flip the Lip! The Upper Lip-tie and Feeding Challenges

By Melanie Potock While many pediatric professionals are familiar with a tongue-tie, the elusive lip-tie hides in plain sight beneath the upper lip. Because I focus on feeding difficulties in...

Feeding Therapy, Medical Concerns, Parenting a Picky Eater

5 Common Mistakes (and Solutions) When Dealing with Kids’ Chronic Constipation

By Melanie Potock As a pediatric feeding specialist, my job includes helping kids become more adventurous eaters by working with registered dietitians, physicians and other team members to ensure a...

Medical Concerns

To Brock Osweiler, Who Gave a Tiny Fan a Wonderful Christmas Surprise

By Melanie Potock Let me introduce myself — my name is Melanie and I’m a coach. Not the kind of coach you’re used to — I’m one you’ll never need....

Feeding Toddlers to School Age, Medical Concerns, Parenting a Picky Eater

5 Fun Ways to Get Kids Drinking More Water

By Melanie Potock MA As an SLP specializing in pediatric feeding, I often get parents and physicians asking me how to encourage toddlers and preschoolers to drink more water. Many young...

Feeding Babies, Feeding Therapy, Medical Concerns

What Is Tongue-Tie?

Could tongue-tie be affecting your baby’s ability to breastfeed? Here’s everything you need to know about this common but often overlooked condition. Tongue-tied doesn’t just mean being too embarrassed or...

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Can’t get enough family, friends & 🦀🦀🦀🦀 from @thecrabplace ♥️

Have you ever had fresh steamed🦀?

Crab feasts all summer!

🥰Melanie

Melanie Potock, Picky eaters , pediatric feeding therapy , raising adventurous eaters , Maryland Blue Crab ...

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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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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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Posts filed under: Medical Concerns

Medical Concerns