Feeding therapy is a form of treatment that aims to help individuals, including children, with feeding skills. It can be applied in nutrition and feeding in both human and animal care. The field has gained more popularity over the past few years as people began to realize the effect of feeding style on one’s health. There are various types of feeding therapies from which to choose. Here’s an overview of the different types of eating disorders and how they affect your body.
Types of feeding disorders
There are many types of feeding therapy at Boston Ability Center that people can experience. These disorders range from cases of picky eating to bulimia and anorexia.
Picky eating: This is a feeding disorder where the individual eats food but shows no interest in trying new foods or flavors. The person focuses on eating the same type of food repeatedly.
Bulimia and Anorexia: In bulimia, people cannot stop themselves from bingeing and then they compensate by purging themselves. It can be done through vomiting, excessive exercising, or taking laxatives. In anorexia, people lose weight to look like a thinner version of themselves. Although this is a healthy goal for some people it can lead to other health problems such as osteoporosis.
Feeding guidelines
There are five main guidelines to follow when trying to feed a child. They are: providing enough food, giving the child autonomy, providing variety, giving praise and acknowledgement, and feeding on demand.
Providing Enough Food: When it comes to feeding a young child, the first step is always ensuring they get enough food to eat. This can vary depending on age and weight. For example, if you are feeding a two-year old, you would want them to have about 1/3 of what their age-appropriate weight is because their stomachs aren’t fully developed yet. On the other hand, for an eight-year old, that number would be closer to half of their age-appropriate weight.
Giving the Child Autonomy: The first thing that needs to happen when feeding a child is ensuring that they can feed themselves and choose what they want to eat. Because children have little self-control at this time in life and don’t know any better than what we teach them (babies will usually grab whatever food you give them), it’s important that we give them choices from the start so they learn how to make decisions for themselves as they grow older. Giving children autonomy includes not only allowing them to choose what they want but also teaching them how to make healthy choices by offering alternatives like fruits or vegetables instead of processed foods with added sugar or fat.
