How Tube Fed Babies Can Become Independent Eaters with Jennifer Berry, MS, OT/L and Heidi Liefer Moreland, MS, CCC-SLP, BCS-S, CLC

#50: Many babies on tube feedings can learn to become independent eaters. In this episode feeding therapists Jennifer Berry, MS, OT/L and Heidi Liefer Moreland, MS, CCC-SLP, BCS-S, CLC explain the challenges facing families of babies that rely on tube feeds for nutrition. They often face the realities of no exit strategy from the tube, lack of communication among the healthcare team and a misunderstanding of the developmental abilities and feeding needs of the individual babies. Heidi and Jenny share how their intensive feeding tube weaning programs work. They talk about the important foundations of responsive feeding that can benefit all parents and caregivers, as well as the need to build trust in the feeding relationship and implement Satter’s Division of Responsibility in all stages of feeding. As feeding therapists Jenny and Heidi advocate for helping babies achieve feeding milestones, albeit with variability and starting where each child is at. They believe that the majority of feeding interventions should address the child’s skill, their need to overcome aversion and their ability to self-feed. Listen to this episode to learn: WHY trust in the feeding relationship is so important regardless of whether baby is weaning from breast, bottle or feeding tube and HOW parents and caregivers can help establish that trust with baby. HOW families with babies on feeding tubes can be advocates for independent feeding and weaning off of the tube...even when the healthcare team may not be convinced weaning is possible Shownotes for this episode can be found here: https://www.babyledweaning.co/podcast/50 Links from this episode: Follow Thrive by Spectrum Pediatrics on Instagram @thrivewithspectrum Listen to Jenny and Heidi and Thrive by Spectrum Pediatric’s podcast TUBE TO TABLE and subscribe to the podcast Jenny and Heidi are also feeding therapists who work with children and families both in-person and remotely. You can contact them via their Thrive by Spectrum Pediatrics business Guests Jenny and Heidi shared the image below “Overcoming Feeding Aversion and Feeding Tube Dependency” below: Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro program with the 100 First Foods™ Daily Meal Plan, join here: https://babyledweaning.co/program  Baby-Led Weaning for Beginners free online workshop with 100 First Foods™ list to all attendees, register here: https://babyledweaning.co/baby-led-weaning-for-beginners 🌱 🌱🌱🌱 🌱 Not sure about which foods to offer your baby next? Get your copy of my original 100 FIRST FOODS list on my free online video workshop called BABY-LED WEANING FOR BEGINNERS. 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 Want guided help on how to make all of the 100 FIRST FOODS™ safely for your baby? My program BABY-LED WEANING WITH KATIE FERRARO has a 100 FIRST FOODS daily meal plan and everything else you need to start solid foods safely with baby-led weaning. CLICK HERE TO JOIN. 👀 👀 👀 👀 👀 Be sure to follow @babyledweanteam on Instagram and our Baby-Led Weaning YouTube channel for more information about helping your baby transition to solid foods safely. 🙏 🙏 🙏 🙏 🙏 If you learned something from this episode and like this podcast, your review means the WORLD to us and helps other parents find this important evidence-based infant feeding info. Click here to leave a review on Apple podcasts or rate this show on Spotify podcasts and thanks for being a part of this amazing and supportive baby-led weaning community! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices