Co-Treatment Outpatient Program

For this program, children must be followed and referred by a medical provider in the Comprehensive Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing Program.

The Co-Treatment Outpatient Program is for children with complex feeding difficulties who have tried other outpatient feeding therapies and have not fully met their feeding goal(s). With this program, the child’s behaviors made therapy difficult.

Some examples of goals are:

• Better oral motor skills, like chewing or weaning from a bottle
• Tries or eats a bigger variety of foods
• Drinks and eats more
• Better behavior during meal times

What to Expect

Patients are scheduled in a weekly, 60-minute outpatient slot for 8 weeks.

• A caregiver must attend each session. Whoever goes must be someone that feeds your child often. You need to do a 5 to 10-minute practice meal at home each day between weekly visits.
• At each session:
  • A feeding therapist and psychologist will meet with you.
  • Meals or feeding skills are practiced. This is so we can check progress and go over challenges with you.
  • You will be trained and practice skills in each session to prepare for practice at home.
  • Providers and caregivers will make a home plan for practice over the next week.

• Because these sessions are very in-depth, we encourage families to find childcare for siblings during scheduled visits.

Treatment Course

• Session 1: Evaluation – Gather your child’s history, test their skills, and create treatment goals.
• Session 2: Meal Observation – We watch (observe) a meal or feeding session while the caregiver is feeding. This helps us build an oral motor exercise plan.
• Sessions 3 to 6: Start building a treatment plan and focus on practicing at home.
• Session 7: Go over session goals and start building a discharge plan.