May is also PFD Awareness Month!
What's PFD?
Pediatric feeding disorder (PFD) is a medical condition when feeding is not age-appropriate with feeding skill, medical, nutritional, and/or psychosocial challenges. It can present as crying, choking, gagging, vomiting, refusal to eat, tantrums, restricted variety and quantity, or shortened or prolonged feeding time. PFD is often misunderstood, dismissed, and labeled as manipulation, a passing phase, or picky eating.
Some signs of PFD include:
Refusing age-appropriate foods or liquids
Limited variety of foods/ liquids
Limited quantity of foods/ liquids
Disruptive/inefficient mealtime behaviors
Delays or challenges with feeding skills
Concerns for nutrition, weight gain, growth
Mealtimes are too short or too long
Feeding and swallowing requires complex combination and coordination. Swallowing involves multiple cranial nerves and over 20 muscles working together to move food and liquid through the body!
For infants, feeding is hard work!
For kids, feeding becomes more complex with the addition of different types of foods and liquids (textures, temperatures), utensils, mealtime routines, and expected mealtime behaviors.
You can learn more about PFD at feedingmatters.org.
Talk to your doctor or an SLP if your child is having difficulty eating and drinking!
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