Who do we treat? The children we treat range in age from 12 months to young adults and possess a wide range of complex medical and developmental histories.

Where does therapy occur? This is where we find what works for you. Sessions can take place at our clinic or in the comfort of your own home, wherever works best for you and your child.

What should I expect? Once you’ve engaged One Bite at a Time, our initial goal is to conduct a comprehensive assessment to ensure we fully understand your child’s unique needs.

We begin by gathering detailed information about:

• Your child’s past and current eating patterns (e.g., feeding history, mealtime habits, daily meal schedule).

• Your perspective on how the feeding challenges developed (e.g., illness, surgery, allergic reaction).

• The approaches you currently use to encourage your child to eat.

• Reports from other allied health professionals.

As part of this process, our nutritionist will perform a full nutritional review to evaluate your child’s dietary intake and identify any nutritional gaps. Based on this review, we’ll provide specific recommendations to help guide therapy goals and ensure your child is set up for optimal success.

Next, we observe your child’s behavior during meals and assess their response to being presented with a novel food item. We also evaluate potential reinforcers (e.g., preferred activities, toys, or foods) to be used as part of your child’s feeding therapy.

Guided by the information gathered from this comprehensive assessment, your One Bite at a Time team will collaborate with your family and other health professionals to develop a personalized feeding therapy plan designed to help your child—and your family—thrive.

Now we implement the plan. There are three phases to implementation:

Sessions with Therapist: In this phase, the therapist, works directly with your child in a non-mealtime setting. The goal is to teach your child to eat a wider variety of foods through structured and supportive techniques tailored to their needs.

Initial Training and Support with Parents: In this phase the parents learn the techniques that the therapist has been using to successfully encourage your child to eat. Techniques are brought into a meal-time routine.

Follow-up Support: During this phase, your therapist will continue to support you to increase your confidence in expanding and modifying the strategies you learned in sessions.

How Do We Know the Plan is Working?

We use a variety of evaluation methods to measure the success of the feeding therapy. These methods help us answer three key questions:

• Is your child making meaningful and lasting progress? We assess whether the plan has led to durable behavior changes that promote healthier eating habits.

• Are parents and caregivers effectively implementing the strategies? We monitor how well behavioral support procedures are being used at home and in other settings.

• Do the plan’s goals and outcomes meet your family’s expectations? We gather feedback to ensure the plan is acceptable, effective, and practical for your family’s unique needs.

Our goal is to provide a supportive, collaborative process that helps your child—and your family—achieve lasting success.

What Do Children with Feeding Challenges Need?

Children with feeding challenges need a thoughtful, step-by-step plan to help them develop the skills and confidence they need at mealtimes. At One Bite at a Time, we use a structured and supportive approach based on Behavior Analysis to:

• Teach your child healthy and consistent eating habits.

• Encourage them to feel comfortable and successful during meals.

• Give you and your family the tools to confidently support your child’s progress at home.

With the right guidance, your child can make meaningful progress—and mealtimes can become a more positive experience for the whole family.

What Feeding Challenges Can Therapy Help With?

Feeding therapy can address a wide range of challenges to help your child develop healthier, more positive eating habits. Some of the feeding issues we commonly work with include:

• Eating only a limited variety of foods.

• A diagnosis of Avoidant/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID).

• Fear of eating after choking or vomiting incidents.

• Dependence on a gastrostomy (g-tube) or naso-gastric (ng-tube).

• Oral motor delays or difficulty chewing (e.g., struggling to move from purees to table foods).

• Reliance on bottles or oral nutritional supplements like Pediasure.

• Vomiting or gagging while eating.

• Tantrums or distress during mealtimes.

• Difficulty self-feeding.

• Refusal to drink fluids.

If your child is struggling with any of these challenges, our team is here to provide the support and strategies they need to make progress at their own pace.