Infants are likely to have swallowing difficulties. Good nutrition is a pre-requisite for the
growth and development of a baby in the areas of not only physical development
but also cognitive, social, and communicative
development.
One of the major concerns of a team involved with the
developmental needs of an infant is the child’s ability to take in sufficient calories
for growth and development. Many children, who have had an atypical birth history,
may have received intravenous nourishment initially.
Oral feeding is the normal and preferred means of feeding as
soon as neuromotor development has advanced enough to make it feasible. Some
infants have great difficulty managing the motor co-ordination required to feed
from bottle or breast (that is with the suck and swallow) and some children may
have problems only later with the biting, chewing and swallowing... There are
many reasons a child may fail to develop an efficient suck and swallow or
bite-chew and swallow. The following are only SOME of the possible reasons –
- Respiratory
complications
Depending on the age of the infant, the Speech Language
Pathologist (SLP) has to assess the
child and then facilitate the development of swallowing age appropriately.
Needless to highlight the importance of early intervention in these children.
