Pediatric Feeding & Swallowing Clinic

The Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing Clinic provides specialized comprehensive multidisciplinary care for infants and children living on Vancouver Island who have feeding and swallowing difficulties with nutritional concerns.  We provide collaborative, innovative, evidence based, family-centred services. Our collaborative service delivery model ensures that we can provide accurate diagnosis and intervention that meet the needs of each child.  Our focus is on children whose needs cannot be address by their community team and require specialized care or those without community supports.

Our Team

• Speech-Language Pathologists
• Occupational Therapists
• Registered Dietitian

Members of our team have specialized training in the unique needs of children who struggle with eating, swallowing and nutritional concerns. Our focus is on swallowing safety, development of feeding skills, progression through textures and optimizing nutrition.

Video Fluoroscopic Swallow Studies (VFSS)

We can offer VFSS to determine risk of aspiration and understand a child’s ability to safely meet nutritional needs orally.  Less invasive assessment options are often an alternative for evaluating some feeding behaviours such as gagging and evaluating oral motor issues.  A clinical evaluation by our team is required to determine appropriateness.

Referrals
We accept referrals for complex feeding and nutrition issues including:

• Inability to transition to age appropriate solid foods
• Difficultly managing liquids (i.e., possible aspiration)
• Inability to meet nutritional needs due to:    
  • bottle refusal
  • oral motor dysfunction
  • reflux
  • structural abnormalities
  • orofacial Myofunctional Disorder
  • medical Factors
• Feeding tubes 
• Safety of Swallow (Dysphagia)

Currently, we do not provide services for children's who's feeding difficulties relate primarily to an underlying behavioural or mental health issue, parent child interactions or picky eaters. We can offer evaluation and recommendations for those with significant malnutrition.