Abstract
The aim of this study is to survey the activities of a feeding therapy clinic in children's hospital during a 10 year from 1987 to 1997. The clinic is available once a month for patients, and many specialists such as a pediatrician, pediatric dentists, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists (ST), and a dietitian are involved. 192 patients (99 males and 93 females) visited the clinic over a total of 110 clinic days during the 10 years. According to the analysis of the clinical charts, the main results are as follows; (1) The major complaints were “changing from tube feeding to mouth feeding” and “difficulty in weaning”. (2) Ninety-seven patients (50%) came once and about two thirds of the children quit the clinic within 3 visits. (3) 126 (65%) of the patient's families asked a staff member for help in feeding by themselves, however 53 patients were referred by others. (4) In comparing the improved group (25 patients) and the group who discontinued therapy (24 patients), cerebral palsy patients were found more in the latter. In terms of the feeding stage at the first meeting, there were not any differences between these two groups. However, there were significant differences in advancement between feeding stages and family motivation when measured by an Χ2 test. It is speculated from these observation that children with feeding difficulties had a lot of problems. These included not only dysphagia, but also problems caused by their posture, poor weight gain, etc. For these various problems, it is important to use the team approach and to include individual specialists as described above.
