OT for Infant Eating?

[Josiegirl]

Has anyone ever had babies who they did OT with to get them to learn how to chew/eat food?
My just turned 9 mo, still doesn't eat food. The only thing he's happy with is yogurt and the occasional slice of cucumber; everything else gets gagged on IF it even makes it into his mouth. I(and dcm) have tried a plethora of things and nothing works.
Dcm had his check-up last week and the pedi said they'll revisit the issue at 12 mo but did mention OT as a possibility.

[PB&J]

Yes therapy can help

We had an infant born with a severe tongue tie and another mouth issue (required surgery). When it was time for cereals and soft foods, the baby gagged and choked. Parents did take her to a pediatric speech therapist to work with her. Baby was part time, so the parents and therapist did all the training and exercises. At the daycare, she just needed to use a special flat spoon and mom just asked us to go slow and don’t worry about how much she eats with us, as long as she tries at each meal time and joins in. So I can’t speak to what the therapy is about, but I can confirm that therapy exercises with a pediatric speech pathologist helped this baby learn to eat and swallow.

[Mom2Two]

DD had a feeding therapist in the NICU. I learned some good things about feeding babies from that lady.

[finsup]

I'm interested in what others say. My own DD is almost 10m and has just begun to put food to her mouth and try to eat. She has trouble keeping it in her mouth and swallowing but is at least trying now. Her pediatrician isn't too concerned though. We're giving it until her 12m check to see where she's at.

[PB&J]

I’ve been doing daycare for eleven years. We’ve had a handful of “tongue tied” babies and toddlers. What was interesting is that some of them first went to a pediatrician who said there was nothing wrong, but when the parents pursued the issues (eating, swallowing, talking) with a different doctor, that doctor agreed the tongue was restricted too much. A (relatively) simple snip eliminated the problem. How badly a tongue is restricted seems to be subjective to the doctor, so maybe another opinion would help.
Sometimes it’s a texture issue, but you both specifically mentioned swallowing and “not knowing” what to do with the food, so that’s why I mentioned the tongue issue. With texture, babies almost immediately push the food out and/or gag!

[hwichlaz]

A lot of kids aren't ready until they are a year old. But yes, I've had OT and EI in for feeding therapy. One was a child with a g-tube. He had a stroke as a newborn and half of his body, including facial muscles, is weaker than the other side.

The other was a child with feeding aversion. She has no appetite because of a neuro diagnosis and we were having to almost force feed her. The just gave up on that and put in a g-tube for her last week.