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This comprehensive two day in-person course taught by speech pathologist and international board-certified lactation consultant, Jill Rabin, will explore the history of infant feeding and the impact of cultural changes on our feeding intervention with infants to three-year-olds today. The focus of the course will be on the implementation of child-directed and responsive feeding techniques such as baby-led weaning and adapted baby-led weaning in facilitating feeding skill development in babies with feeding challenges.
A baby-led weaning approach is often discouraged by health care professionals as it is often deemed unsafe, especially in babies with feeding challenges. Back in 2010, the adapted baby-led weaning approach® (ABLW) was created by Jill Rabin. ABLW follows all the same principles of traditional BLW, however, certain modifications are made such as possible delayed introduction to solids, careful selection of the size, shape and texture of foods to present based on the baby’s feeding skill set, and use of bridge devices such as a silicone feeder or netted feeder, to safely target chewing skills. This course will extensively explore the adapted baby-led weaning approach and how it can systematically and safely be implemented, using the size, shape and texture of foods therapeutically. Participants will learn about the extensive benefits of ABLW with babies with feeding challenges in regard to self-feeding skills, intuitive eating, eye-hand coordination and chewing skill development. Other topics that will be explored include: how ultra-processed foods can impact the health and oral structural development of babies, how to offer allergenic foods with babies with delayed feeding skill development, how feeding skill development may differ in babies transitioning to solid foods with BLW from those of their traditionally spoon-fed peers, and how we can present foods and liquids to babies to facilitate skills such as jaw strength, lip closure, cheek activation, and tongue lateralization and retraction.
Video and in person demonstrations will teach participants how to safely implement adapted baby-led weaning techniques in babies with Down syndrome, babies who are tube fed, babies with feeding aversion, babies with cleft lip/palate and babies with dysphagia. Participants will leave this course with a fresh perspective and evidence-based references on using an adapted baby-led approach® with their feeding challenged and at-risk clientele. They will have an extensive new repertoire of techniques to attempt with their clients and understand how to safely offer the size, shape and texture of different family foods to safely facilitate feeding skill development. The adapted baby-led weaning approach® can be used safely and effectively with most babies with feeding difficulties with the guidance of a trained feeding therapist.
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