Feeding Support From Infancy Through the Teen Years
What We Treat
Bottle Feeding
For infants who have difficulty transitioning to a bottle or who cough or choke during bottle feedings.
Breastfeeding
Support for infants who have difficulty latching and mothers and babies who are having challenges with breastfeeding.
Transitioning to Purees & Solids
Helping children who gag, choke, or have negative experiences as they begin eating different textures and types of food.
Picky Eating & Problem Feeding
Supporting children who refuse most foods, eat a very limited variety, or have strong reactions to unfamiliar foods.
Sensory Sensitivities
Helping children become more comfortable and regulated around different textures, smells, tastes, and food experiences.
Food Exploration & Expansion
Gently guiding children from familiar foods to new ones through playful, low-pressure exposure using tenets of the SOS Approach to Feeding.
Tethered Oral Tissues
Support for feeding challenges related to lip, tongue, or cheek ties.
NG & G-Tube Feeding
Supporting children who use alternative methods of feeding and helping families work toward oral eating when appropriate.
Aspiration & Dysphagia
Helping children eat and drink as safely as possible, including support for families managing thickened liquids and working toward the thinnest safe consistency.
Oral Motor & Feeding Skills
Building skills such as tongue movement, chewing, drinking from a cup or straw, and moving from baby foods to solids.
Specialized Training & Certifications
Our feeding team has completed advanced training to support a wide range of feeding and swallowing needs:
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Certified Lactation Specialist (CLS)
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TOTS: Tethered Oral Tissues Specialty Trained
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Modified Barium Swallow Impairment Profile Certified
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Advanced training in Food Chaining and the Get Permission Feeding Approach
Understanding the Full Picture
Feeding Evaluations
During a feeding evaluation, your feeding therapist will look at the full picture by watching your child during the eating process.
We want to understand the why behind your child’s feeding challenges. We look at sensory needs, movement, coordination, posture, oral motor skills, breathing patterns, saliva management, and swallowing.
We’ll also look at your child’s current eating habits, nutritional intake, responses to different foods and textures, and any signs of stress, discomfort, coughing, choking, or fatigue during meals.
After the evaluation, we’ll review our recommendations with you and talk through next steps. We’ll determine whether your child is a candidate for feeding therapy at Strive to Thrive and, when needed, collaborate with or refer to other professionals involved in your child’s care. This may include ENT, GI, pulmonology, neurology, cardiology, dietitians, and occupational therapists.
Feeding Therapy Can Be Fun
Our Approach to Feeding Therapy
At Strive to Thrive, we focus on a child-centered approach where feeding is a positive experience.
Our feeding therapists are specially trained in the Get Permission Approach, a caring, child-led method that helps children feel safe, curious, and respected around food. We follow your child’s cues, building trust, comfort, and readiness at their own pace.
This approach involves playful exploration and progressive food introduction, where children learn to look, smell, touch, and eventually taste foods when they feel ready.
We play with food, make messes, and most importantly, we help children learn that food can be fun and not stressful.
Parents and caregivers are encouraged to participate throughout therapy. A big part of our approach is helping you understand what we're doing and giving you strategies you can use at home, where most feeding and mealtimes happen.
Feeding Therapy Sessions
What to Expect
Families bring a variety of foods, including safe “go-to” options, preferred foods, and a few new or less familiar choices. This allows your feeding therapist to observe comfort, skills, and reactions across different experiences.
Each feeding therapy session begins with a brief check-in to understand how things have been going at home. Then your feeding therapist will guide your child through individualized feeding activities that may include:
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Gentle exploration bridging from safe and preferred foods to new foods
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Practice with chewing and swallowing skills
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Gradual progression to help your child explore foods that match in color, texture, size, or smell to make new foods feel more familiar
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Strategies to reduce stress or overwhelm at the table
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Practicing tongue movement and other oral motor skills
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Transitioning from baby foods to solids
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Moving from a bottle to a cup or straw
Every step honors your child’s pace, cues, and comfort. Parents are included throughout the process, learning strategies to support progress at home.
Safe, Successful Feeding and More Enjoyable Mealtimes
What We’re Working Toward
Feeding therapy focuses on the concerns that matter most to your child and your family. That may mean safer eating and drinking, expanding a limited diet, building new feeding skills, or simply making meals feel more positive and enjoyable for everyone.
Depending on your child’s needs, feeding therapy may help them:
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Eat and drink more safely
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Reduce coughing or choking during feedings
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Feel more comfortable and positive around food
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Expand a limited diet to include a wider variety of foods
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Improve tongue movement and chewing
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Transition from baby foods to solids
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Move from a bottle to a cup or straw
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Eat more successfully in different settings
Our goal is for each child to become a safe and successful feeder so the whole family can enjoy mealtimes together.
Pediatric Feeding Therapy in Arlington Heights, IL, Serving Families Across Chicago
Feeding Therapy That Puts Your Child First
At Strive to Thrive Therapy, our goal is to help children approach food with courage and curiosity while building lasting skills for healthy, positive eating and sufficient nutrition.
Throughout the process, your child’s physical, emotional, and psychological safety while eating remains at the center of their care.