Dear Judith,
I agree with Laurie! I just had a case here where the nutritionist 
wanted to take away the baby's bottle because he was not eating a lot of 
solids yet at 18 months. We were never able to get the baby to 
breastfeed when he was younger. Shortly afterward the visit at 18 
months, I took Lori Overland's training on feeding behaviors and skills 
which had been recommended to me by Cathy Watson Genna. I was able to 
reassessed the child for feeding skills needed for transitioning from 
purees and found he was lacking these essential skills! We were able to 
create a plan to help build the feeding skills needed and he is moving 
away from purees into more standard table foods. When the normal 
behavior is not emerging normally, something is getting in the way! 
Babies want to eat what we eat!
They were told, which is so common, that it was a behavior issue, not a 
functional issue. Blame the parents and the child!
My personal opinion, but I feel that most of these "behavior issues" 
originally stem from functional issues that people don't have the skills 
to assess so they blame the family.
I still get chills when I think of a 4.5 year old sibling of a baby I 
was doing a home visit for. The little one presented to me as if he 
might be tongue tied and the family was on board with going to get an 
evaluation for that. The mom and I were just chatting and she started 
telling me about the 4.5 year old who hardly ate anything and was very, 
very thin. The family had been told it was all of their fault, they had 
created behavior issues. The little girl came in from playing outside 
and I asked if the mom wanted me to just do a quick look at her oral 
functioning. This girl had been preterm, 35 weeks, and in all kinds of 
oral therapies, OT, PT, SLP, since birth. She never breastfed. One look 
at her tongue functioning and it was clear she had significant 
restrictions! She could not extend her tongue, lateralize well, or lift 
her tongue. The family had the tongue released and slowly this child was 
now able to move into more eating. The mother said she choked and gagged 
on most foods! So, again my opinion, a functional issue ends up taking 
on behavior manifestations because the child is trying to protect itself.
I have no financial interest but I found Lori's training to be eye 
opening and enlightening. I also recommend her book, A Sensory Motor 
Approach to Feeding but having her there to explain it all to me was 
great.  I know infants but now that I have a much better understanding 
of what skills are needed for solids has been empowering.
Thank you!

.

-- 

Barbara Robertson, MA, IBCLC, RLC
The Breastfeeding Center of Ann Arbor
bfcaa.com

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