Desensitization to Reduce Oral Hypersensitivity and Improve Intake for Children With Feeding Disorders

Children with complex medical histories may have limited, delayed, or no early oral feeding experiences, which decreases the likelihood of independently developing appropriate oral motor skills required for eating. Children who are introduced to solid foods after 6-7 months of age frequently gag, choke, or vomit due to inefficient oral-motor skills. In typically developing children, gagging weakens as a child learns to chew around 7-months of age. However, children with feeding disorders do not have the same opportunities to weaken the natural gag reflex due to limited experience with oral feedings. As a result, they often become hypersensitive to any tactile stimulation and averse to foods and utensils touching specific parts of the mouth. There is a gap in the behavioral feeding literature addressing oral hypersensitivity and behaviors that interfere with swallowing (i.e., packing, expelling, gagging, vomiting). Some work surrounding desensitization of the oral cavity has already been done within other disciplines (i.e., occupational therapists and speech and language pathologists); however, desensitization has not been well-defined, nor has it been empirically studied.

(1) Specific Aims: The proposed study is designed to assess the following aims:

• Define an oral-desensitization protocol to improve oral intake and decrease gags and emesis in children with feeding disorders.
• Evaluate the efficacy of the brief implementation of an oral-desensitization protocol alone and in combination with the antecedent-based procedure, flipped spoon.
• To explore the relationship between behavioral feeding intervention and child oral and motor proficiency.
• To explore the relationship between behavioral feeding intervention and parent and child outcomes including parenting stress, mealtime feeding behaviors, and general child behavioral functioning.

(2) Research Hypotheses: The proposed study is designed to test the following hypotheses:

• Effect of flipped spoon versus flipped spoon + desensitization. It is hypothesized that there will be a faster decrease in (1) gags, (2) latency to clean mouth, (3) packs, (4) emesis, and (5) CI's with those participants who receive oral desensitization prior to the flipped spoon intervention. It is also hypothesized that children who receive desensitization prior to flipped spoon will be able to transition back to an upright spoon more quickly when compared to children who did not receive desensitization.
• Effect of behavioral feeding intervention on child oral and motor proficiency. Exploratory analyses will be conducted to examine pre-test and post-test ratings of child oral and motor proficiency. It is anticipated that the oral-motor coordination of the participants will significantly improve.
• The relationship between behavioral feeding intervention and parent/child outcomes. Exploratory analyses will be conducted to examine pre-test and post-test ratings of parenting stress, mealtime feeding behaviors, and general child behavioral and emotional functioning. It is anticipated that parent-reported ratings in these areas will improve from pre-test to post-test.

Treatment:

Participants will be randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups: desensitization + traditional behavioral intervention or traditional behavioral intervention alone. All participants will be treated for a maximum of 40 treatment days, or until treatment goals have been met. A total of 3, 45-minute meals will be held each day for a total of 120 meals throughout treatment. Trained feeding therapists from the Interdisciplinary Pediatric Feeding Program at Mott Children's Hospital will conduct sessions in treatment rooms with one-way mirrors. Caregivers will be given the option to observe through the one-way mirror or stay in the treatment room with the participant. The behavioral intervention will involve a combination of escape extinction and antecedent manipulation of the food (e.g., limiting bite size, using a flipped spoon to deposit the bolus). The behavioral intervention plus desensitization will include the above in addition to desensitization of the oral cavity. Desensitization will occur for the first 3 meals. This involves systematically stimulating different areas of the oral cavity (cheeks, palate, tongue, sides of tongue) to provoke and ultimately decrease the gag response allowing eating to be easier for participants. Data will be collected throughout each meal. All feeding sessions will be recorded to ensure protocol fidelity and for the purposes of collecting reliability data.

Inclusion criteria

• Behavior problems (i.e., spitting, crying, head turning, gagging, physical aggression) are interfering with feeding
• Medical causes of feeding disorder have been treated or are well-controlled without resolution of the feeding problem
• Normal feeding milestones have not been met or regression has occurred
• Enteral feeding dependence as defined by the participant relying on Nasal Gastric or gastrostomy-tube feedings in order to receive appropriate nutrition and gain weight
• Accepts a limited number of foods and limited volume of foods by mouth (i.e., not enough variety or volume to maintain growth and/or good nutritional status)

Exclusion criteria

• Children who had anatomical/active medical problems that prohibit safe oral intake will be excluded