SOS Feeding Course, based on Sequential Oral Sensory Approach
What is the SOS Approach?
The SOS Approach to Feeding is a Transdisciplinary Program for assessing and treating children with feeding and weight/growth difficulties. It has been developed over the course of 20 years through the clinical work of Dr. Kay Toomey.
This program integrates motor, oral, behavioural/learning, medical, sensory and nutritional factors and approaches in order to comprehensively evaluate and manage children with feeding/growth problems. This programme will be run by Occupational Therapists only. It is based on, and grounded philosophically in, the “normal” developmental steps, stages and skills of feeding found in typically developing children.
(sosapproachtofeeding.com)
- Child who has limited variety of tastes and textures in diet
- Child who has difficulties transitioning to advanced food textures
- Child who demonstrates food refusal
- Child who has maladaptive behaviours around food
- Families who power struggle at mealtimes
What will it do?
- To support the child to have positive experiences with food.
- To support the child to learn mealtime routine and cues to eating.
- To support a decrease in resistance to touching, tasting and swallowing food.
- To support to increase the range of foods the child will try.
How many sessions and what will they involve?
There will be 13 sessions in total, including 1 introductory session. There will be a maximum of 5 children in each group.
In each session, the therapist will be working with the children to experience a range of different foods through play and sensory experiences.
Parents/ carers will be given feedback at the end of each session and weekly feeding programs to complete at home between sessions.
Therapists will complete feeding progress charts throughout the 13 sessions helping each child to meet their individual goals.
The cost to complete all 13 sessions is £850.00
Unfortunately we were not able to run the September 2023 course as originally planned. The next course will run in Spring 2024, on the following dates, with all sessions starting at 10.30am:
Session duration: One hour.
The course will then run again from September 2024, all sessions will be on a Thursday afternoon 1:30-2:30pm on the following dates:
Things you will need to bring to each session:
- The chair your child normally eats dinner on.
- An open mind and commitment to complete the weekly feeding charts in between sessions.
Top Tips
1. Do not assume that creating ‘hunger’ will lead to eating new foods… Starving will create stress and negative associations around food.
2. Stress creates dysregulation…When our nervous system has moved into a ‘fight, flight or freeze’ state, eating isn’t the body’s priority, safety is.
3. Picky eaters are often children who struggle with being able to break down food safely before they can swallow it… You can help build up a child’s oral motor skills by offering foods that are shaped lengthwise.
4. Foods that are ‘lengthwise’ gives children a chance to grasp the food and control ‘where’ it goes inside the mouth… A sense of control will help them feel more comfortable because they can decide when to stop the food.
Top 10 Myths!
- Eating is the body’s number 1 priority… No, breathing is! Postural stability is no 2, then feeding no 3.
- Eating is instinctive…It is but only for the first 4-6 weeks of life, then it is learnt.
- Eating is easy…It takes 7 different human functions for a person to eat.
- Eating is a 2 step process, you sit down and eat… It is actually a 32 step process (or more!).
- It is NOT okay to play with your food.
- If a child is hungry enough they will eat, they will not starve.
- Children only need to eat 3 times a day.
- A child who won’t eat has a behaviour problem.
- Certain foods are only eaten at certain times of the day and only certain foods are healthy for you.
- Mealtimes are a social occasion and children must mind their manners!
(K. Toomey Training 2021)
References
Antoniou, E.E., Roefs, A., Kremers, S.P., Jansen, A., Gubbels, J.S., Sleddens, E.F., & Tthijs, C. (2016). Picky eating and child weight status development: A longitudinal study. Journal of Human Nutrition and diet, 29(3), 298-307
Black, M.M., & Hurley, K. M. (2017). Responsive feeding: Strategies to promote healthy mealtime interactions. Complimentary Feeding: Building the foundations For A Healthy Life. Black, R. E., Makrides, M. & Ong, K.K. (Eds.). Switzerland: S. Karger A.G. pp. 153-165.
Kerner, B. (2009) Clinical investigation of feeding difficulties in young children: A practical approach. Clinical paediatrics, 48(9), 960-965.
Lukens, C.T. & Linscheid, T.R. (2008) Development and validation of an inventory to assess mealtime behaviour problems in children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 38(2), 342-352.
Marcus, S. & Breton, S. (2013). Infant and Child Feeding and Swallowing: Occupational Therapy Assessment and Intervention. AOTA. Bethesda, MD.
Reinoso, G., Carsone, B., Weldon, S., Powers. J., & Bellare, N. (2018) Food selectivity and sensitivity in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A systematic review defining the issue and evaluating interventions. New Zealand Journal of Occupational Therapy, 65(1), 36-42
Toomay, K.A. & Ross, E.S., (2019) Behaviourally based feeding problems. In Suiter, D.M. & Goser, M. (Eds.), Assessing and Treating Dysphagia: A Lifespan Perspective. NY: Thieme, pages 249-263
Toomay, K.A. & Ross, E.S. (2011) SOS Approach to feeding. American Speech-Language Association, 82-87.
Williams, K.E., Field, D.G., & Seiverling, L. (2010). Food refusal in children: A review of the literature. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 31, 625-633.