Oral Motor Impairment in Children With Feeding Difficulties

摘要

We appreciate the interest in our recent article. Responses to queries are below. Diagnosis of oral-motor impairment: Although there are some valid and reliable tools for assessing severe oral-motor dysfunction, these are not sensitive to milder impairments. Many nonmedically complex children in our study displayed mild/moderate oral-motor impairments and restricted their diets based on texture. During the intervention phase of our study (published in a subsequent article (4)), we found that these children benefited from specific instructions for effective chewing. As reported, a proportion of our nonmedically complex group presented with developmental delays (n?10; 29%). Our study did not intend to represent the full spectrum of children with feeding difficulties (only those that would be eligible to receive intervention, as per our inclusion criteria). Children with severe oral-motor impairment were specifically excluded. Because the severity of oral-motor impairment increases with declining motor function, this, by default, excluded children with severe motor impairments, as observed in many children with cerebral palsy.