Helping families achieve stress free mealtimes!
Are you concerned about your child's eating and drinking?
Do you work with children who have eating and drinking difficulties?
We offer education and training to help parents and professionals understand how children learn to eat and drink, what can go wrong and how you can help.
Are you concerned about your child's eating and drinking?
Do you work with children who have eating and drinking difficulties?
We offer education and training to help parents and professionals understand how children learn to eat and drink, what can go wrong and how you can help.
We are pleased to announce the dates of our spring 2024 workshops:
A workshop for professionals on 26th February.
3 workshops for parents on 4th March for under 5s, 7th March for 5 -10 year olds and 18th March for children over 10.
All workshops run from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm.
Professionals click here for workshop details.
Parents click here for workshop details.
For a registration and payment form, please email [email protected]
Now that the pandemic is over, we are returning to our core business of providing education and training.
We offer:
Workshops for Parents - our own or commissioned.
Workshops for Professionals - our own or commissioned.
We organise them to meet demand, so if you are interested, please fill in this contact form for parents, or this contact form for professionals.
We also offer consultations for the diagnosis of ARFID. See this link for our consultation services.
Sensory Play Toolkit
Here is a link to a toolkit of sensory play activities for 2-7 year olds, devised by two academics, Drs Helen Coulthard and Vicki Aldridge, both of whom work in the field of feeding behaviour and have links with us. Do have a look and give them your feedback. https://sensoryplaytoolkit.weebly.com
Information leaflets:
Here are some leaflets you may find useful if you have a child with with sensory sensitivity or a child who is tube fed.
Click on the links below:
Understanding Sensory Sensitivity.
Understanding Tube Feeding and the Implications for Oral Feeding.
Working with Sensory Sensitivity at Home.
What we do:
When a child refuses foods, mealtimes can become a source of anxiety and dread for parents and an unhappy time for the child. Parents may worry about the child’s dietary intake and weight, and fear that they may become ill. Sadly, help and advice from others may make parents feel guilty or inadequate. Birmingham Food Refusal Service may be able to help parents and professionals through its educational and training courses.
With over 50 years of clinical and academic experience between us, you can be sure that our courses are based on sound clinical practice and research.
With over 50 years of clinical and academic experience between us, you can be sure that our courses are based on sound clinical practice and research.
Who we are:
We are Dr Gillian Harris, Clinical Psychologist, Sarah Mason, Speech and Language Therapist and Dr Maddy Greville-Harris, Clinical Psychologist.
We have extensive practical and research experience of working with families who have children who are difficult to feed. Please read our biographies to learn more about our professional backgrounds.
We are professionally registered with hcpc. You can check our registrations with this link.
We have extensive practical and research experience of working with families who have children who are difficult to feed. Please read our biographies to learn more about our professional backgrounds.
We are professionally registered with hcpc. You can check our registrations with this link.
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Dr Gillian Harris Sarah Mason Dr Maddy Greville-Harris
Why are some children difficult to feed?
We believe that when children refuse food it is rarely due to bad behaviour. It is usually linked to complex inborn factors or medical conditions which make it difficult to feed the child and which raise parental anxiety. In the same way, it is not the parents' fault that a child is difficult to feed. We know that many parents feel responsible and judged by others. What parents need is understanding, support and knowledge about why a child is refusing food.
Some children have a condition called Avoidant and Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). The condition has been recognised by the American Psychiatric Society (APA) which has published the criteria for diagnosis. We have written a description of the main features that parents may see in their children’s pattern of eating.
Follow this link to find out more information.
