Post-Wean Support

How to Wean From Screens

How to Wean From Screens

There’s little I love more than cuddling up with my pajama-clad girls on the couch for dinner and a movie – and I don’t think I’m the only one! A lot of families enjoy eating on the couch from time to time, plates on laps, balancing drinks nearby with the hope that no one kicks them over. And to be honest, I find nothing wrong with occasionally eating with the family in front of a screen because, at the end of the day, those weaning from tube feeds have to wean into the life that they have – and sometimes, that includes a very literal version of “dinner and a movie.”  

The Day my Daughter First Ate Beans

The Day my Daughter First Ate Beans

When my daughter was learning to eat, I was the most overwhelmed mom you’d ever met! Reeling from, what I now know was, pretty significant Post-Partum Anxiety and Depression, I was barely holding my life together – even though she was more than 1 year old. One of the only reasons I was surviving was because I had resorted to following the easiest meal planning strategy I possibly could: pick food that was easy to cook and widely accepted. 

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Bottles are Best: How Infants Re-Learn to Suck-Swallow after Tube Feeds

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Bottles are Best: How Infants Re-Learn to Suck-Swallow after Tube Feeds

Most full-term infants are born with innate reflexes to survive outside of the womb. The three most important reflexes for early feeding are the rooting reflex to locate the source of nourishment, the suck-swallow reflex to transfer breastmilk or formula, and the gag reflex to protect their airway. Although these automatic, reflexive patterns support the infant’s survival early on in life, they begin to integrate into volitional motor patterns around 3 months old.

Changing Up How you Offer Preferred Foods

Changing Up How you Offer Preferred Foods

When you and your child are feeling like you are in a rut on how to offer foods, it can be difficult to pull yourself up and branch out. But, as caregivers, we can make changes to already accepted foods to help encourage kids to try new foods and encourage variety (remember, within the Division of Responsibility, ‘what to eat of what is offered’ and ‘how much’ are the child’s jobs, so our job is only to help offer foods in a way that empowers them to expand on their job when they’re ready). Here are some tips to do just that

Expanding Your Child’s Food Variety

Expanding Your Child’s Food Variety

At some point, all parents (especially toddler parents) ask themselves, ‘When is my child going to eat more than 3 foods?’ and then follow up with, “and why do all three of those foods have to be processed carbs?” So whether your child is actually a toddler or just a toddler in the terms of “eating age,” it’s important to understand what to expect as your child begins to expand the variety of foods they eat.

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Division of Responsibility: Childhood through Adolescence

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Division of Responsibility: Childhood through Adolescence

One of my favorite Ellyn Satter quotes is “when parents do their jobs with feeding, children do their jobs with eating”. It is certainly apparent that infants and toddlers need their parents to play an active role in helping them to form happy relationships with food. But it’s important to remember that older children (even adolescents) still need their parental involvement.

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Division of Responsibility: Toddler Feeding

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Division of Responsibility: Toddler Feeding

The most predictable thing about toddler eating is that it is unpredictable. Variations in appetite will occur and while there will be days when your toddler only wants to lick, taste, or nibble, there will be other days when the volume of food consumed is unfathomable. Trust that your toddler knows how much to consume at each eating opportunity. 

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Division of Responsibility: Infant Feeding

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Division of Responsibility: Infant Feeding

Growing Independent Eaters embraces and utilizes the feeding principles developed by Ellyn Satter. We use them because these principles have been validated through research to improve mealtime experiences in the long-term. And that’s what we want for your child: a life-long, happy, trusting, healthy relationship with food. And that kind of long-term success starts by implementing some really important principles, starting in infancy.

Two Types of Pressured Eating – and Why We Should Avoid Them

Two Types of Pressured Eating – and Why We Should Avoid Them

When you reflect on your childhood, do you recall feeling pressured to eat a certain food or meal? For me, it was meatloaf. I instantly knew when I asked my mom what’s for dinner and she said meatloaf, that is was going to be a terrible night.

Growth Expectations: When to Expect Weight Gain Post-Tube-Wean

Growth Expectations: When to Expect Weight Gain Post-Tube-Wean

Weight gain, or the lack thereof, is often the reason that children are put on feeding tubes. And though parents learn to accept a small bit of loss during the weaning process, often the question remains as to when they might see their child begin to gain again post-wean. So let’s see if we might understand what to expect by looking at how orally-eating children typically gain weight.

Improving Your Child's Oral Skills

Improving Your Child's Oral Skills

One of the big questions that comes up as a child becomes more and more driven to eat orally is “How do I get their skills to catch up?” While some kids will need the help of a local feeding therapist to more intensively work on the muscles for biting and chewing, there are some things that we can do to help set our kids up to be successful, as well as help progress their skills for biting and chewing naturally.