Oral-Motor and Feeding Clinic at La Rabida Children’s Hospital

Contact Information

📍 Address

6501 S. Promontory Dr. , Chicago , IL 60649 · 🗺️ Get Directions

Specialists

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Social Worker Speech Language Pathologist

Diagnoses

Autism Avoident/Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) Bronchopulmnoary Dysplasia (BPD) Cerebral Palsy Cleft Lip and/or Palate Congenital Heart Defects (CHD) Cystic Fibrosis Developmental Delay Down Syndrome (Trisomy 21) Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE) Failure to Thrive Food Protein Intolerance Enterocolitis Syndrome (FPIES) Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD) Gastrointestinal Genetic/Chromosomal Metabolic Condition Neurological Condition Obesity Pediatric Feeding Disorder (PFD) Prematurity Psychosocial Condition Respiratory/Pulmonary Condition Sensory Processing Disorder Severe Food Allergies Structural/Cranio-Facial Abnormality Swallowing Disorder/Dysphagia Swallowing/Dysphagia

Services

MD or Group of MDs with routine office visits Outpatient: Once a week or less (overnight stay not required)

About

La Rabida’s Oral-Motor and Feeding Clinic

Many children have difficult with some aspect of eating or drinking that impacts their all-around development and disrupts mealtimes, especially if they have developmental and/or medical needs. The feeding team at La Rabida Children’s Hospital works to support your child’s eating, drinking, and swallowing skills. Our ultimate goal is to help make mealtimes enjoyable for your family.

Our Care Team:

Speech-Language Pathologist (SLP): The SLP is responsible for evaluating the structure and movement of the mouth, including the lips, tongue, jaw, and palate. The speech-language pathologist will assess each child’s ability to manage saliva and manipulate food and liquid in the safest manner possible and will also evaluate how well children handle different food textures and consistencies.

Social Worker (SW): The social worker is responsible for assessing the challenges the family experiences around feeding and how they cope. The social worker will also evaluate information, resources, and support that might be helpful to the family.

Registered Dietitian (RD): The dietitian is responsible for assessing the nutritional adequacy of a child’s prescribed diet or feeding regimen and teaching and counseling parents to promote good eating behaviors that facilitate the child’s growth.

Our Services:

Comprehensive assessment of feeding and swallowing difficulties by an interdisciplinary team
Consultative services to support families, physicians, and other service providers
Recommendations at the end of each session
Follow-up services are available as needed, including off-site scheduling of Oropharyngeal Motility (OPM) studies

Children demonstrating any of the following may benefit from a feeding evaluation:

Poor weight gain
Vomiting during or after eating
Coughing, gagging, or choking during or after eating
Food refusal or aversion
Troubles with age-appropriate food textures
Crying and arching during meals
Difficult or stressful mealtimes

A physician referral is required.

To make an appointment, please call 773.256.5786.