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Funded Program to Help Treat Children with Feeding Difficulties

September 18, 2024

Mealtime can often be challenging, especially when encouraging your child to eat. Is your child a severely restricted eater (less than 10 foods), or could they be dealing with a more complex feeding disorder? The Paso Del Norte Children’s Development Center (PdN Children’s) offers specialized support for children with feeding difficulties.

Thanks to funding from the Paso del Norte Health Foundation’s Healthy Eating Initiative, PdN Children’s Feeding Clinic is now providing advanced treatment for children diagnosed with a Pediatric Feeding Disorder (PFD) through the “Off to a Good Start” program. Using the Sequential-Oral-Sensory (SOS) approach, therapists are highly trained to support both the children and their families throughout the treatment process.

“When parents call to set up an appointment with me, they convey significant distress and, at times, cry over the phone because their children are not eating,” said Rosie Duran, Therapy Services Support Specialist, Paso del Norte Children’s Development Center. “But when they observe the therapists, learn how to work with their children, and watch them try and eat new foods, they show amazement and then feel hope.”

This program is the first of its kind in the El Paso area, offering services to children ages 0 months to 21 years. Many of these children struggle with malnutrition due to challenges in adopting healthy eating habits or physical difficulties with using their lips, tongue, and jaw for safe eating and swallowing of food.

Treatments are customized for each patient, with parents actively participating in the therapy sessions and treatment process. In addition, parents receive coaching and guidance on how to continue their child’s treatment at home through individualized home programs.

To learn more about the Health Foundation’s Healthy Eating Initiative, visit pdnhf.org.

For details about the “Off to a Good Start” program, visit the Paso Del Norte Children’s Development Center at pdnchildrens.org.

Photo: Jasmine Escandon, PdN Children’s Occupational Therapist

PDNHF Initiative: Healthy Eating

A high-quality diet with appropriate daily caloric intake provides essential nutrients, helps people maintain a healthy weight, and decreases their risk of chronic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, and cancer. Evidence associates healthy eating with better health outcomes; however, many people do not consume the daily recommended levels of nutritious foods, such as fruits and vegetables, that make up a healthy diet. The Health Foundation’s focus in the Healthy Eating initiative is educational programs, such as nutrition and cooking classes, that influence behavior in selecting, preparing, cooking, and eating healthy foods and policy and promotion activities that encourage healthy eating.

View Strategy Brief (English)

View Strategy Brief (Español)

Foundation Staff: Jana Renner

Healthy Eating
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