Browsing by Author "Turunen, Eveliina"

Objectives. Feeding disorders affect families in many ways, like causing challenges for parenthood and daily routines. Parents' perspectives on their children's feeding disorder and its rehabilitation has not been investigated thoroughly. It is according to clinical practice guidelines to take parents' view into account for parents being in essential position in their children's rehabilitation. Parents' experience can also help speech-language pathologists to improve their practices. The objective of this study was to describe parents' perspectives on their children' feeding disorder and its rehabilitation in speech-language therapy. Also the impact of the therapy to the family was examined. Method. Nine parents were interviewed for the study, whose children with feeding disorder had been evaluated by speech-language pathologist in the specialized medical care. Children were under 2.5-year-old and their rehabilitation had ended less than a year earlier. Children's etiologic background differed significantly of each other. Parents were interviewed using a semi-structured theme interview. The themes were formulated using previous research literature and clinical expertize. The interviews were recorded and transcribed, and the data were analysed using inductive content analysis. The categorisation was made from the content into themes. The themes were analysed and complemented using previous research literature. Results and conclusions. The feeding disorder manifested in children's eating and behaviour in various ways. The feeding disorder caused mental, physical and social burden for the family. It had caused a lot of negative emotions, stress and daily challenges to the parents. Thus an early intervention could be beneficial for the family. The parents found the rehabilitation positive and beneficial. The rehabilitation took parents' expertize and daily concerns into account, increased parents' understanding and emotionally encountered them. The therapy methods were diverse and interdisciplinary team approach was used. The rehabilitation had changed parents' behaviour and attitude, which was seen for example in feeding practises, parents' emotions and competence. The effect of the rehabilitation appeared in children' oral sensorimotoric functions and in feeding behaviour. Children were more active, self-regulated and their reaction to feeding were eased in many ways. The feeding rehabilitation can affect positively both to parents' competence and children's feeding disorder. In future it would be beneficial to study what kind of feeding intervention services families undergo outside specialized medical care.