An interdisciplinary team approach to the management of pediatric feeding and swallowing disorders

Children with complex feeding problems frequently are involved with many he alth care services given the multiple medical and developmental issues impa cting on feeding progress. The key to providing well-coordinated clinical s ervices for these patients is to use an interdisciplinary team approach. In this article we describe a model of interdisciplinary team care for medica lly complex children with chronic feeding, swallowing, nutrition, and growt h problems. A description of the functional roles of each of the discipline s represented on the team (nursing, nutrition, speech pathology, occupation al therapy, psychology, and gastroenterology) is provided.