In the current climate, there may be barriers to attending your child’s therapy session in the Centre for reasons such as being unwell or in quarantine. Would you like to avoid cancellation fees and keep the continuity of therapy going? Your child’s appointment can be carried out via telehealth. The prospect of an online session for your little one can be daunting but hear us out! There are a number of advantages to a telehealth session, and they often go a lot smoother than you expect.
Here are just some of the ways your therapist can support you via these platforms:
● You can inform your therapist and celebrate progress or successes experienced at home.
● Discussion regarding current challenges you may be experiencing at home and provision of new strategies to try. This can occur out of ‘ear shot’ of your child so they can’t hear the discussion about them – children are very sensitive and attuned to what adults are saying about them
● Dietetic review or discussing meal plans with your child’s Lively Eaters dietitian.
● Review previous goals and set new goals for the upcoming period.
● Provide video footage of a typical mealtime for the therapist to review and provide feedback on changes or challenges they can observe within the home setting. A picture tells a thousand words.
This may be a good opportunity to have the time (a full session!) to discuss the above matters with your child’s therapist one on one.
If your child is able to engage in therapy via telehealth:
● Cooking sessions: Your therapist will plan the recipe ahead of time, send it to you so you can be prepared with the ingredients to cook together on screen!
● Oral motor exercises: These can be fun via telehealth! Children tend to enjoy watching themselves in the video and this can be motivating to get some practice in.
Many children enjoy engaging in telehealth sessions from the comfort of their own home. For some, they feel more relaxed and enjoy the opportunity to share some of their home life with their therapist.
Setting up your space for Telehealth:
– Choose a quiet, private space: A quiet space, away from the distractions of tv and toys. Let the rest of the family know when the session will be happening, this may mean setting siblings up with activities. Don’t worry, we love visits from the rest of the family, and understand it may be tricky to keep other little ones engaged whilst the session goes ahead.
– Lighting: It is best to have a light source in front of you so your therapist can see you well. Facing a window or having a lamp on in front of you will do the job.
– Get the camera angle right: If we are cooking together, it is best if the camera is a little further away so we can see your faces as well as your bench top!
– Check your microphone settings before the session starts.
– It is best if you use a computer/laptop/tablet rather than a mobile phone for telehealth sessions, particularly if your little one is involved.
Planning ahead for telehealth can make a big difference!
If you would like further information regarding telehealth or phone call appointments, please call the Centre on (08) 7226 6395 or email info@livelyeaters.com.au
Over the years I have met a number of parents who have told me that they are unsure if the way they introduced solids was the right way, or they were unsure if their child was ready, or that they had received conflicting advice about when and how to take this very exciting step into a new stage of development for their baby. It is so hard as parents being presented with so many differing opinions from sources that we trust such as family, health professionals and friends and trying to do what is right for our children and our families. Read more
Food can be one of the most sensory experiences a child has every day. All senses are being used in tandem. Take for example, eating a bowl of hot chips; you are first introduced to the aroma of the chips straight from the fryer, and see the colour of the chips and the bowl in which it is presented. Picking up a chip, you explore the texture of the outer crust, the bumps of salt and the sensation of heat. Taking a bite, the flavours of salt, potato and texture all mingle in your mouth.
There are many different nutrients that our body needs for good growth and development. A common nutrient that we hear about is iron; but why is iron important? This post will discuss the importance of iron for growing children, the key signs of iron deficiency and how to encourage iron intake in children with feeding challenges.
It is common for children with feeding challenges to drink small amounts water, eat minimal fruit and vegetables and get stomach pains and constipation. Being constipated can result in pain when needing to go to the bathroom and low appetite, therefore reducing the willingness of children to try new foods. One nutrient which can help to help to improve constipation is fibre!!
Prior to working as a Speech Pathologist and Feeding Therapist, I spent ten years working as an Early Childhood Educator in child care and as a Preschool Teacher. In these settings, food was provided, cooked by an in-house cook and shared by children at mealtimes.
Over the years, I met many children who found mealtimes really challenging. Read more
Learning to live with mealtime mess and the benefits in developing Adventurous Eaters.
Think about when you go to a restaurant and choose something new from the menu. It comes to the table and you are curious, you want to touch it, smell, and inspect it before you feel confident enough to taste it. Children use these same techniques when they are introduced to a new food for the first time. Because children’s sensory systems are still developing, they need to experience this new feeling and texture ALL OVER THEIR BODY. Children learn about their environment and the world around them through their senses, touching, smelling, listening, and tasting.
As a Dietitian, I usually talk with parents and families a lot! It’s important to gather in depth detail about a child’s preferred and non-preferred foods, quantities of food eaten, growth patterns, fluid intake and stool patterns (and the list goes on) to conduct a thorough nutritional analysis and provide practical advice. Finding the gaps in a child’s diet to help them grow is like a puzzle and seeing how our advice can fit the pieces together for a family is extremely rewarding.
However, being able to provide practical advice to children and see their independence in the kitchen grow brings a whole other element to my work as a Dietitian. Cooking and being involved in the kitchen can be a fun and exciting way to learn about new foods. For many of the children I work with, they often haven’t been involved in meal preparation and cooking before. As a way to ease them into the kitchen, I start by cooking a familiar meal with them, so that they aren’t overwhelmed by too many new ingredients. From there, we adapt the recipes to introduce new foods based on the food groups that are currently missing from their diet.
Does your child have difficulty sitting still at the table during mealtimes? Do they require the I-pad or TV to be on during meals? Do they gag at the sight and/or smell of food?
If so, they could have challenges with sensory processing and would benefit from an assessment from one of our Lively Eaters Occupational Therapists.
To understand how sensory processing impacts feeding, we first must understand what sensory processing is.
Mel has taken some time to reflect and write on the simple pleasures we can ensure, to assist in the ‘new normal’ of day-to-day…… Read more
