- By Mrs. Maya M Sanghi (Audiologist and Speech Pathologist)
Premature birth and cleft palate are some of the common causes of swallowing problem in children. Read on to know more about the swallowing problem in children and its main causes.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 onlySOME of the possible reasons –
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.
