Date of Award

2021

Document Type

Capstone

Degree Name

Doctor of Occupational Therapy

Department

Occupational Therapy

First Advisor

Aaron Bonsall, PhD, OTR/L

Abstract

Pediatric feeding disorders can compromise a child’s health status leading to serious long-term consequences including failure to thrive due to inadequate nutrition (Carter et al., 2014). Therefore, specialized feeding intervention approaches are needed to address pediatric feeding difficulties (Carter et al., 2014). Although various treatment approaches are provided for addressing pediatric feeding difficulties, differences occur in the preferred delivery form for effectively implementing feeding interventions (Howe & Wang, 2013). Occupational therapists have the skill set to address pediatric feeding difficulties through implementing behavioral interventions, sensory and oral motor-based interventions, and family-based interventions (Henton, 2018; Nadler et al., 2019; Snider et al., 2011). In this 14-week program evaluation, a manualized feeding therapy intervention implemented at an outpatient pediatric clinic is analyzed to identify the effectiveness for treating children with feeding difficulties. This paper analyzes the manualized feeding therapy intervention through a retrospective chart review including pretest and posttest scores as well as demographic data from 41 children with feeding difficulties who have received feeding therapy at the partner site. The retrospective chart review aims to examine if the feeding therapy intervention is effective in increasing the number of foods a child is willing to eat as well as improving the child’s behavior during mealtime. The results of the program evaluation suggest the use of a multi-tiered feeding therapy approach for effectively treating pediatric feeding difficulties to improve mealtime behaviors and food preferences for children with feeding difficulties (Murphy et al., 2020).

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