Mealtimes are supposed to be the easy part of the day. When they turn into a daily standoff — the same five foods, gagging at new textures, an hour to finish a few bites — it wears a family down and leaves parents wondering whether it's “just a phase.” Feeding therapy is for the times when it's more than that.
What is feeding therapy?
Feeding therapy helps children learn to eat and drink safely, comfortably, and with more variety. At Midsouth Therapy Group it's offered by both our speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and our occupational therapists (OTs) — because feeding difficulties tend to come from one of two places. Some are mechanics-based: how a child uses the muscles of the mouth to chew, move, and swallow food. That's an SLP's wheelhouse. Others are sensory-based: how a child experiences the taste, smell, texture, and temperature of food. That's where our OTs come in. Plenty of children have a little of both. The evaluation sorts out which is driving the difficulty, so your child works with the right therapist — sometimes one, sometimes the two together. Our team is trained in established feeding approaches such as the SOS Approach to Feeding, TalkTools, Feed the Peds, and My Munch Bug.
Picky eating vs. a feeding disorder
Most toddlers go through picky phases — refusing vegetables one week, living on crackers the next. That's typical. A feeding difficulty looks different: it's persistent, it narrows rather than expands over time, and it starts to affect nutrition, growth, or family life. If your child eats fewer than around 20 foods, drops foods without adding new ones, or melts down at whole categories of texture, that's worth a closer look.
Signs your child might benefit from feeding therapy
- A very limited diet (often fewer than 20 foods) that keeps shrinking.
- Gagging, choking, or coughing during meals.
- Refusing entire textures, temperatures, or food groups.
- Trouble moving from purées to table foods.
- Long, stressful, or tearful mealtimes — for child or parent.
- Concerns about weight, growth, or nutrition.
If your child is coughing, choking, or losing weight, talk with your pediatrician promptly — some feeding issues have a medical cause that needs ruling out.
Mealtimes shouldn't be a battle. Our feeding team can help you figure out what's going on.
What happens in feeding therapy
Therapy starts with an evaluation of how your child handles food — oral-motor skills, sensory responses, and mealtime behavior. That evaluation also tells us whether the difficulty is mostly mechanical, mostly sensory, or a mix, and therefore whether an SLP, an OT, or both are the best fit. From there your therapist builds a plan that makes eating feel safe and even playful, expanding tolerance to new foods at a pace your child can handle, and coaching you on how to carry it into meals at home. The goal isn't to force bites; it's to take the fear and fight out of eating.
Getting started
Feeding therapy requires a referral from your child's primary care provider (faxed to 901-589-9001). Once we have it, submit our new-client form and our team will reach out to schedule the evaluation.