There’s no place like CHOC Children’s Multidisciplinary Feeding Program. Started in 2003, the program is one of a handful of specialty feeding programs in the United States to offer comprehensive outpatient consultations as well as an intensive inpatient program that provides children and their caregivers with the confidence, skills and tools needed to make meal time a happy part of everyday life.

Children who undergo evaluation and treatment at CHOC for feeding problems and disorders have typically failed outpatient feeding therapy and have either a G-Tube (feeding tube) or are at risk for G-Tube placement. Patients can have a range of medical problems, as well as developmental problems, including cerebral palsy, developmental disorders, seizure disorders, genetic disorders, oral motor dysfunction, short-bowel syndrome, food allergies or were premature at birth. Children may also refuse to eat many foods or have difficult behaviors that make mealtimes a struggle.

Before coming to CHOC Children’s, Pacer Lybbert had never eaten a Cheerio, a piece of toast or even spoonful of yogurt. He was almost 4 and had never enjoyed birthday cake, Halloween candy or a Thanksgiving dinner with his family. Since birth, Pacer had received almost all of his nutrition through a feeding tube.

His parents Quinn and Mekell had resigned themselves to the possibility that Pacer would need a feeding tube for life. Then, they met a little boy near their new home in Montana who had been successfully treated for a similar problem at the CHOC Children’s Multidisciplinary Feeding Program.

The Multidisciplinary Feeding Program at CHOC, which receives referrals from throughout the country, has grown and recently moved its treatment space to the third floor of the CHOC North Tower. The expanded space includes two feeding therapy treatment rooms, plus a central area equipped with state-of-the-art audio visual equipment, where families and staff may remotely watch therapy sessions in real time.