CREDIT:
Earn 3 contact hours (0.3 CEUs)
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course offers B-3 professionals a functional and body-based perspective on reflux in infants. Participants will build connections between postural asymmetries, oral motor dysfunction, tension patterns, and reflux symptoms. Additionally, through practical strategies, therapists will gain tools to assess beyond feeding alone and support infants through an integrated, root-cause approach.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
- Determine how infant postural asymmetries and motor patterns may contribute to functional symptoms such as reflux, colic, or feeding stress
- Correlate oral motor challenges with whole- body patterns (torticollis, side-preference, extension) to build an integrated clinical picture
- Apply body-based and caregiver-focused strategies that support regulation and function across domains (motor, oral, sensory and GI comfort)
AUDIENCE:
Therapists working with the birth to three population.
SCHEDULE:
Section 1: Reframing Reflux Beyond the Gut
Participant reflection: What symptoms do you most often see with reflux in B-3?
Understanding reflux as a multisystem presentation
Functional contributors: posture, oral motor, sensory regulation
- Postural asymmetries: what are hips doing?
- How is this impacting feeding secondary to poor alignment
- Torticollis:
- Body concerns impacting reflux and oral motor concerns
- How is treatment different given a torticollis diagnosis
- How does Torticollis impact the mechanics of swallowing and does that impact reflux?
- How does sensory based positioning or retained reflexes impact reflux or oral motor delays through the whole body lens in children with torticollis?
Bringing in the systems of the body (fascial and nervous systems)
Case examples showing reflux co-existing with body asymmetries and oral tension
Section 2: Whole- Body Assessment Connections
Identifying postural asymmetries, torticollis, and extension patterns in daily routines
Observing oral motor challenges in the context of whole-body patterns.
Getting to the root cause
Posterior tongue Tie vs Faux Tie: What are the implications?
- How are they similar/different
- How does treatment change based on accurate diagnosis?
- What do we see in the body and how do we address it?
- Functional assessment vs biomechanical assessment.
- What does the assessment tell us?
Section 3: Interdisciplinary Intervention Strategies
Gentle body- based approaches for regulation and comfort
Positioning and handling to reduce reflux symptoms in everyday caregiving routines
Oral motor play as part of gross motor and sensory integration
Section 4: Caregiver Education and Team Collaboration
How to explain the “whole- body” approach to families
Coaching strategies for daily routines (feeding, play, sleep)
Knowing when to collaborate or refer (GI, lactation, PT/ OT/ SLP crossover
Post-test
Mallory Roberts is a Speech Pathologist who has special interests in infant reflux, infant oral development and bottle feeding. She is trained in myo-functional therapy, craniosacral therapy, and infant massage. She has. Recognizing the lack of support during her own babies’ feeding journeys, she created The Feeding Mom. It is here that she empowers parents through their feeding journeys locally and around the world. Her philosophy is: every parent deserves to love feeding their baby.
Once you purchase an online course you will have access to the course materials. If you have purchased this course, please ensure you have logged in to your account in order to take the exam.
Once you purchase an online course, you will have the opportunity to take an exam to test your retention of the material. If you have purchased this course, please ensure you have logged in to your account in order to take the exam. The exam must be completed with a pass rate of 80% or more in order to receive your certificate of attendance.
