Thrive Beyond Five 
Feeding and Developmental Therapy

Now, this is an engaged bottle-feeding baby! The baby is awake and fully engaged with their parent. The baby has a complete lip seal, a deep tongue latch, a robust nutritive suck, and a rhythmical suck-swallow-breathe pattern. These are the feeding and developmental skills we want to teach! If your child has difficulty with any of the above skills, consider scheduling a session with us.

Using a suckle pattern is common when first starting to eat. This baby is still working on fine-tuning his head and neck control. Developing head and neck control is vital before moving to purees. A small taste of food is placed just inside the lips. The baby licks the taste. He uses a tongue thrust pattern to move the food to the back of the mouth to swallow. With this early feeding skill, you may see food pushed out of the mouth. A more mature eating skill should develop by 6 months. If your child continues to tongue thrust their food out of their mouth past 6 months old, consider reaching out for a feeding therapy visit.

Give your baby all the power by offering whole foods they can mouth. Remove all stems, stickers, and any other choking hazards. This video demonstrates a fun early intro to feeding and food exploration activity! Babies can work on holding a food item in their hand, self-feeding skills, hand-to-hand play, reaching skills, and so much more! If your child has difficulty with any of the above skills, consider calling us to schedule a session.