What Helps Pediatric Feeding Therapists Gain Confidence in Practice

If you take Hallie's course, you're going to see that there's a need to be filled. And when you start to fill that need, you're going to see there's a bigger picture. And once you start to step into that bigger picture, guess what? There's an even bigger picture.

Hi, and welcome back to the Untethered Podcast. Today we have Kelly Winger joining us. Kelly is a wife, mom of three, and speech language pathologist with over 12 years of experience. She's also the owner of a growing private practice dedicated to supporting families in their feeding and communication journeys. Her career has really taken her across a variety of settings, but everything changed in 2020 after the birth of her first baby. That is when she fell in love with the world of pediatric feeding and swallowing. That season not only reshaped her as a clinician, but it also inspired her to pivot her entire career path and build a practice specializing in pediatric feeding disorders. As she dove deeper into this niche, she also became a certified myofunctional therapist. Because, let's be honest, feeding, swallowing and myo truly go hand in hand. Today, she is passionate about empowering parents, supporting infants and toddlers, and helping families build strong, strong skills from the very first fight. Welcome to the Untethered podcast.

I am your host, Hallie Balkan. I'm a certified myofunctional therapist, feeding specialist, podcaster, business owner and mentor. This podcast is all about getting your questions answered and collaborating with colleagues to bring you the most up to date information in the orofacial myofunctional therapy, airway, tepidural tissue and pediatric feeding therapy space. If you're new here, I challenge you to keep an open mind and join my mission to spread this message far and wide.

I if you've been around since June.

2019, thanks for being a loyal listener. As we jump into today's episode, remember to listen with correct oral rest. Posture, tongue up, lips closed, teeth apart.

Breathe through your nose. Let's get started. Welcome back to the podcast.

Hi Halle, thanks for having me.

I'm excited to have you back and I know we've had quite a few changes since the last time you were on and we'll, we'll dive into some of those today. But yeah, I guess just give us an update since the last time you were on the podcast and share a little bit about, like what, what's, what's happened in life.

Definitely we're in such a different place than I was just a little over two years ago, both personally and professionally. So last time I was on, I had just had a baby. Just a quick recap. She was about six months and. And I kind of told my story on that first podcast of, you know, what brought me to stepping out, going into private practice, making it, you know, centered around feeding, therapy and going through your Feed the peeds and using that as my launching pad to like build my confidence to step out into what was a new area for me for practice. I'd spent many years in the school system and I was just ready for a complete change, especially after having children. And so that first podcast kind of goes really deep into why I started my, my practice. And then we launch here and we are now two plus years into full fledged Nurs. Nurture well, I have since then also had another baby which was a blessing for us, but a little unexpected when you're starting your own business and so, but very fun, very exciting. And Nurture well, has really evolved in the last couple years and so I'm excited to kind of talk about that and how, how that's happened. I would say the biggest change for us is I did take on a business partner, so. So our practice is now shared ownership between myself and a long time colleague turned friend. Dear friend now, of course. And our practice has expanded. We are in two locations. We went from the two of us this time last year to now having 12 of us. So the growth was just exponential and mostly because we are offering services that are just rare in our area, hard to find and really like our network of speech pathologists, almost like unwilling to touch or just not having the confidence of feeding knowledge and feeding therapy and feeling like that they can successfully, you know, accept clients with those kinds of needs.

That's a lot of exciting, exciting changes. I mean everything from family to the practice to like just all the things. I mean, congratulations because that's.

Thank you. Yeah, it's been a great couple years. It's been a wild ride. But. But it was nonetheless.

I love that. I love that. Okay, so we're going to dive into this like one by one then because I think I want to start with the before, like where you were when this all kind of, you know, started. And that was at one point you dove into Feed the Peds. Now, like when you started Feed the Peds, like how did you feel? Like, I'm just curious, like, were you really super confident in treating pediatric feeding cases? Were you working with feeding, like share with everybody what that looks like kind of before feed the peas versus after? You know, I know a lot of people tell me Oh, I was referring a ton of kids out because I didn't know if I could help them and. Or I was working for somebody else and I was really still scared to take on cases or, you know, what did that look like for you?

Sure. I mean, I think anyone in that position, I think it's a good understanding that most of our graduate programs, like, don't have strong teachings in. In most of those, most of it's like a summer class or, you know, something that's just not very, like, confidence.

You get anything at all. I got nothing in grad school.

And so I. I think one of my favorite, like, what's highlighting to me right now is, like, in the course, you go into it and you're like, okay, like, I need to finish this before I can see anybody. And you highlight in your course so much, like, get started, like, just go, like, get, like, just start. Like, you do truly have to start somewhere. And I think a lot of us speech pathologist types are like, oh, no, I need to, like, have all my ducks in a row. And like, I can only start when this happens. And that's just not true. And especially in my area, when there was literally no one else providing the service, I started having that, like, mental narrative of, Kelly, you're still doing better than anyone else because something in trying is for that child is better than nothing because they're just going to get nothing. So, like, you do know, Kelly. Like, you do know. You do have the knowledge. And then going through the course, obviously either, like, brings back snippets from graduate school, but then, you know, really just builds you together to say, you know, go through the diagnostic process. And then the more people you see see, the easier that diagnostic process becomes. Right? Because then you just start to lay down the process. It's a new process. If you're me and you're, you know, having to learn the diagnostic piece, but then the diagnostic piece really drives the therapy and. And it's a constant diagnostic process. Honestly, every session is a constant re eval and you're seeing, like, where have they come? What needs to change? How can we tweak this? And it's exciting, right? I feel like feeding therapy is one of those areas that, like, you can see a lot of growth rapidly. And sometimes in the speech world, some things can take longer or, you know, there's not as much like, immediate reinforcement, I guess, depending on the case, of course. But so, yes, I already forgot your question, but you kind of spoke to.

Like, having like, a systemic approach to, you know, or not systemic. Sorry, Systematic is the word I was going for. Approach to assessment. Right. Like, basically creating a process. And the more. I love what you said, like, the more kids you kind of get your hands on, the more kids that you assess and treat. And then this ongoing, like, dynamic assessment, like, every session is like, okay, how are we doing? Where are we headed towards? Like, how are they presenting today? Like, are we maintaining skills? Do we need to work on these skills again? Like, do we have this foundation built or are we still there? You know, it's kind of like you're constantly reassessing, like, what's going on to understand, well, where do we go today? Like, what do we do in today's session? What is the child available for right now? And so I love that you kind of put this framework, like, this approach around it. And I think that's so important because most of us don't have that until someone kind of gives us, like, a little mentorship around that where it's like, well, hey, like, let's look at it through this lens. And it's like, oh, okay, that makes more sense. And then the more you practice, the easier it gets, because you know, not to see that pediatric feeding is easy. And, like, we're always going to have linging cases, and we're always going to be like, my gosh, I've been doing this for years and years and years, and I'm still stumped. Right. Which is why we all kind of need to be a community that comes together. We all need to kind of mentor and lean on each other, but at the same time, like, having those foundational skills, having a framework, having a systematic approach. Right. That's so critical. So I love that you kind of. It sounded like that's kind of almost like what you have in place. Right. And so was there, like, a particular, like, struggle or pain point or something that, like, you were like, okay, I have got to take. Feed the peas. Like, was it just that you didn't have it in grad school and all these kids needed the help, or was there something else?

It's. It was something that, like, I had eyed. Right? Like, I'm like, okay, I had my son really got opened up into the world of feeding. Infant or pediatric feeding? Right. Infant feeding, Pediatric feeding. And I'm like, wow, is great. Like, and, you know, starting to network in that realm of just finding out, like, just the lack of resources in our community. And that is a problem for me. And so that's when I started. Okay. Like, I know the insecurities like, in my knowledge. And so, you know, you start to, like, revisit the textbooks a little bit, and you realize, okay, this is still not enough. And so that is when I'd feed the peas. I was watching it, and I was pregnant and wanted to get through newborn and just set myself up for, like, okay, at the time, at the timing, per personally for your course that would work realistically is the same time I just was like, we're stepping out, right? Like, we're gonna take the course simultaneously stepping out into a new, not career, but, you know, umbrella of the career. And so, yes, I leaned on feed the peds to support me in doing that and giving me the confidence and the resources to move on into the world. Unknown is what it really, like, felt like.

Was there anything that you were, like, really, like, afraid of or kind of even skeptical about, like, in taking that leap?

I mean, this is what comes to mind. So, like, I look at myself now. I took the course. I've. I've been doing this for a couple years now, and I think of a client, right? I have. I have a client who is young, 9, 10 months, G tube, lots of trauma at birth, hydrocephalus. And I just doesn't. I mean, yes, I. He has to be mine. Like, he is complex. I want that. I want to work through with this family, and I thrive on that kind of complexity to get him where he should be and where he can go and to get off that G tube, right? Two years ago, Kelly would have been like, like, we've got to go to, like, ucsf. Like, you know, like, there's. There's got to be someone else better than.

Right? So, like, the fact that you can serve these families and that they don't have to go to, like, a. A medical center, right? That's like, they can go to a private. More of a private practice setting and maybe something closer to home and something that feels a little bit less hospitally, medical, sterile, you know what I mean? And more like warm clinic. And I don't mean that in. In a negative way, but it's like a lot of these kids who have medical complexities spend a lot of times in doctor offices, in hospitals. And so it's like, if we can have a different experience, especially when it comes to something like feeding for them, like, how nice, like, for that family to even just have that experience with you all.

Yes. In our clinic, we are contracted with our regional center. I think it looks different in each state. So that birth pop, that 0 to 0 to 3 population and so we get a lot of feeding families through them. And yes, like, we're servicing them in the home even better. You know, that's even. And you just see the progress. Right? Like, there's just I, my little kiddo, two weeks difference was amazing. And you know, you are working with the families directly in their home space and what's really feasible for them, you know, we got to work with them first. Like, they're going to be the ones that are carrying over what we're doing when we leave after our session, like Kyling class.

But yeah, that's why, you know, that was one of the reasons why I set up my practice the way that I did initially. I was like, I want to service these kids in their home, in their school settings. Like, where are they spending the most time? And guess it's a convenience factor for families for like, you know, people who are private paying. My private practice in the D.C. metro area. But it was also just because I was like, I feel like these kids make more. They make quicker progress. And then it's easier to generalize if we're in their natural environment because we're already there. And then the hardest part becomes generalizing it from us to other caregivers rather than from us to other settings with different caregivers. And like, it takes away like one. One barrier. Right. So I'm like, when that's possible, it's just so nice. And there's other nuances and challenges and working in those environments, of course. But it's still. I just think it's so nice to be able to get into that natural environment.

So I love that. And there's kind of, you know, can be like a stigma around it that it's uncomfortable. And honestly, my business partner and I have thrived on it. Like, we love the in home setting for those reasons. Like, we've already said, like, the parents are involved, they're sitting right there. Or the primary caregivers in some situations. And we just really haven't had a negative experience by going into the homes because the children are thriving that way. And that's why we're all there. Right.

I love that. I love that. So thinking back to feed the peds, because there's also another half of your business, like you do the 10, the Mayo and all that which we go into for the birth to five crowd.

And feed the peas, you know. Right.

Like, right.

The seed was planted.

But like, were there any particular, like topics that feed the Pete's covered that stand out to you or that totally change Something for you because I feel like, you know, I know where you've gone on your journey, but want to hear from you.

I mean, if we're talking about mayo, like and just the whole world of tethered oral tissues that I know you have some specific modules on each one of those. You separate those out really nicely and those were like, wow, stuff I just did. Didn't know. Didn't know, you know, had of course done a million and one oral mechs, I'm sure by this point. And you know, remember oral mech being really important in graduate school. And honestly still just as a trained professional. So still not trained. Great. Still not trained in tethered oral tissues. Didn't know exactly what I was looking for, how to evaluate it, looking at the function functional side of things, carrying that over into the Maya world. And so yes, I would say feed the peds itself prompted another journey into the MYO world.

You went, now that rabbit hole. It's our kids that do it to us. But I'm like, I'm like so sorry guys. I'm so sorry they've not sent you down here for new rabbit hole from. But you know, I think it's really interesting because I know you have a very like integrative approach inside your practice. And so let's talk about that a bit because I think that like having training in pediatric feeding in the way that we also present it and we include tether dural tissues and MYO as it adapts to like our pediatric feeding clients. Plus then actually taking a MYO course and getting. Becoming a certified myofunctional therapist cmt. Like you've obviously gone like deep, deep, deep down the rabbit hole. So how like talk to us about like what your caseload looks like now. Like who are you working with and are you working with students? Is it feeding where you apply, Maya? Is that a little of everything? Like what does that look like?

I mean I. My time personally is limited, right. I have a small family, I have a five year old, a two and a half year old and a six month old. And so personally I am kind of called in for like complex cases. Everyone's a little bit stumped in the clinic. So we have built our clinic with fabulous speech pathologists. My business partner is a speech pathologist. She specializes, specializes in, in the motor planning side of things. So think apraxia of speech also hybrid in that over into feeding. I mean that is its own podcast. We have also hired an additional myofunctional therapist who has an RDH Background. So that's been great to like learn from each other because I feel like there's just a whole knowledge of teeth that I didn't know. So my caseload looks like kids that have a little bit of everything we have, they've been on a speech caseload for a really long time and they haven't tried MYO yet. But there's also feeding issues or it's the complex feeding issue that parents don't know their kids have because they're here for Milo. So I step in to hybrid and address all three within a valuable session. Right. Because you know, most of like we still are a cash pay clinic, we're accepting a lot of insurances still. But I come in for those kids that have a little bit of everything that you know, really the root of it is probably like a tethered oral tissue that's affecting all. And I think one of the things we talked about last time is also like learning to have those conversations with families that aren't on board yet. What do you mean my kid has a tethered oral tissue? They're eight years old. The doctor told us they don't.

Or, or I've been to three other speech pathologists. Why didn't they tell me?

No one's ever said anything.

No one's ever said anything. No one's ever looked in his mouth before. I'm like, well that's the first problem. And here we have it. Yeah.

And you know, and that's. And I, I say no. Everybody knows like a little bit about a lot. But unless you like really focused in on tether oral tissues and what it does to your body and how to evaluate it for function and when it's impacting it and then how to treat it from there. Yeah, it's just, you're just going to keep like spinning your wheels.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and so that's awesome. So you now as the business owner have the caseload that you can manage, but it's more of the complex, you know, hybrid cases with various things going on. And then you've got, you kind of have a whole nother specialty with like the CAS slash feeding side of it with your partner. Plus you then have the team of SLPs and an RDH CON or an RDH myotherapist that is able to do like straight MYO cases. And so you like covered like all the bases, which I love because it also sounds like now are you guys in an area where like there isn't a lot of other clinics like nearby still or have any other clinics in popped up that do similar work?

Yes and no. Directly my area, my town. There's really other two other prominent speech.

Practices doors open today for feed the peds. Kelly is just one of hundreds, thousands of SLPs and OTS who have transformed their practice. If you're ready to go from uncertain to unstoppable, click the link in the show notes. We have bonuses you are not going to want to miss.

Neither of them are doing myo or feeding related services.

Okay, so you're really the clinic in your area.

We're really the clinic in our greater area. It's when you get 45 plus minutes out that you. There's a couple that have, yes, like, popped up and myo's really starting to catch more especially. Especially in like the dentist world.

Interesting. Do you have parents calling you and saying, like, we were referring to you for myofunctional therapy by a dentist, or is it parents hearing the buzzwords and going like, I think my kid needs mayo or yeah, what does that look like?

It's both. I mean, it's been, you know, we've. We've really developed some great relationship with some orthodontists who have grown in this way of thinking. And whatever they're following or going to for their trainings, they're coming back and saying, we a mile person. You know, we need to find someone. And so I get these emails from some orthodontists that are like, okay, you do these things, right? Like, this is what you do. And it's like, yes. They're like, okay, we need you to like, be our person.

Great music to my ear. It's here, you know, and the families right our way. So that's awesome because it sounds like you've got parents who kind of see you more as like that expert and like specialty clinic, you know, in the area and the services for the kids as you can travel to, even for, you know, who are more of the early intervention age, ages plus then you've got, you know, the professionals who are now referring to you and releasing you as the expert in that space, which is super, like, awesome. So like, hello, big confidence. It's like, oh, yeah, we're doing the thing that we set out to do. Like, that is so cool.

Yeah.

Do you. So you had mentioned, like, how we talked about, like, how you even bring up these topics to parents. Are you still having a lot of those conversations? Has it shifted at all? Is it like a mix? Like, what does that look like in terms of just Delivering new information to families.

Yeah. No, I mean, if people find us by themselves, they've obviously know something, right? Like, they read something. They gone down, for lack of a better term, a little bit of the rabbit hole and are aware. Just some know a lot, some know a little bit. Some lean on us a lot harder than maybe others that are just at a different spot in their journey. Mostly with kids, right. Like, I feel like as parents, like, put our children first and we put ourselves last, usually. And so it's. It's mostly kids, right? We're mostly doing peeds and you know, where they're at in their journey, even though mom and dad could probably also benefit. But then, you know, we get the referral from the ortho of the parent that's like, I don't know what this is, but I'm supposed to come to you apparently, because my orthodontist isn't going to, you know, my child has something called a tongue thrust, and my orthodontist isn't going to proceed until we work with you. Yeah, right.

I know.

Isn't that good?

That's awesome. And it's so interesting to see the shift, too. And it makes it a little bit easier to have certain conversations when, like, a parent even approaches you knowing something is going on. It just, like, opens so many doors to be like, okay, you're right. You were right to come for the eval. You're right to have, you know, your gut is pointing you in the right direction. And here's what I'm seeing, right? And so I think that's such a different conversation versus, like, my pediatrician referred me, and we don't know why we're here.

Yes, yes, I know. Again, a whole other topic with pediatricians, but I would say at least I'm a dentist in the ortho world.

At least orthos and dentists are getting it fine, right? Like, they're starting to get it. And that's. That's a nice shift. So progress, progress. Now, do you have, like, a team in your area? Like, how easy or challenging has it been to build out? Cause it sounds like you might be in an area that's not super populated with, like, specialists per se. And so, like, do you have an ent? Is the ortho even close by? Like, what does that look like?

That looks like levels, if you know what I mean by that. We are in California. We are very blessed to have Dr. Zaghi kind of in our network area. He has a satellite office that's not horribly far from Our town.

How far is not like defined.

And this is. I mean, it's like I'm having conversation with the parent now. How far do you want to go? Like what works? Right?

Like how far are you willing to drive? And here's the thing, like going to the ENT is not typically like a regular occurrence. It's like a, you go for a consult, you might go back for another visit. Like you might go a couple times. So like I feel like parents may be more willing to do that versus like a weekly therapy service, you know.

And I would say the ENTS directly within our area. I just haven't found one I've been able to recommend.

But it's nice if Soggy has a satellite office that's like close enough and not horribly far as you said.

That's. I'm also like a believer in trying to just utilize the resources we have within our own community and like motivating others to like still do better. Right. So that kind of comes to our next like tier where I have found my little network of other professionals who have learned from the bigger professionals that the more the top tier and are trying to bring those practices into their own practice and then also making the appropriate referrals, including us at times. So yes, I have built this little team. Awesome. A great release provider. We also have Dr. Yazdi in our area, greater area. I'm not sure how familiar you are with him, but he's pretty well known for just working from that 0 to 12 month and he only does releases.

Oh, wow.

So I've trained with him as well. He does a couple trainings a year that you can get invited to go. And so that has been a greater network. But then there's a couple release providers in our immediate area that have learned from under him as well and have like actually taken. Like, I can't be a release provider. Like I'm not a dentist and they've taken his actual course and like gone and mentored with him and you know, have really learned from him. And so those are people I do like to use locally and I just think parents should have a choice. And so I do just like to provide options. Yeah, I love that.

I love that. So what is next for you? Like, where are you focused? Like, where's your focus for 2026? I know we're recording. Not going to go out till 2026, but you know, we'll be. You'll be in it already. Like, are you looking to continue to grow your practice? Are you looking to continue to Grow like your, your referral network. Are you like, what are you like really focused on? Have you even thought about that?

I. It's like kind of like funny you asked that and I'm like a little uncomfortable to almost answer because I want to bring it to fruition.

You don't have to share with us. That's okay.

No, that's, that's good.

My.

I want our net to reach and impact as much as we can. Right. Like we're here to do like the greatest good that we can. And to me that's reaching more parents. So that's reaching parents through parent education and showing them, teaching them what can we be doing from the very beginning that is going to promote good oral development, proper oral, you know, facial functioning, function over everything. So I do have a couple things in my back pocket that I am working on you have to share with.

Or yet you can, you know, that's, that's exciting. I love this. I love this.

I'm pretty excited about it and I stay true to my function over everything. You know, we're here to look at function and that requires looking at each child individually. There is never two plans or one plan that works for two children. And I. What I've really learned about our area is a lot of the other practicing myofunctional therapists who are not part of your, who have not completed your CMT program. It's a really big one size fits all and it's.

Well, isn't that interesting? And I, I mean like I. So I feel like both on the feeding side and the myo side, like the feeding side, it wasn't really one size fits all but it was like there are one off programs that were not all, they were not comprehensive, they weren't holistic. They were looking at one piece of the, of the puzzle and not pulling all the little pieces together and kind of going like oh let's, let's approach this from a very holistic. Like, I don't mean like holistic crunchy mama. Like I am also in my life. I just mean like holistic. Like we were looking at the child as a whole rabbit holes together, right? So holistic in that sense. And then on the myo side same thing. It was sort of like, well there's these like 12 week programs and it's step one, step two, step three and it's very cooker cookie cutter, you know, boxed up program for Thai, pretty little bow. And these kids were going through these programs and then coming to my practice because they really hadn't made any progress. And we were like, these parents have spent all this time and money and the kid is really. No, like, really not much further along from where they. They certainly don't have functional skills. And so that really motivated me. Like, everyone was like, we love Feed the Pizza. Create a MYO course. I was like, okay. So I created the MYO method. Then they were like, okay, we want your. We want you to create a certification because we like the way you teach and we feel like this might actually make sense for us to do instead of some of the other ones out there. And I was like, okay, I created it, right? And then everyone was like, well, what about pediatric feeding? There isn't a pediatric feeding certification. So the CPFC was born. And you know, and the craziest part. And like, this makes me. We actually just at the time that we're recording this, we just graduated our second cohort of the CPFT students last night.

Awesome.

Listening to all of them talk about like just, you know, a lot of them were like, I was hesitant to get in because of the investment and time and money and my life is really busy and all these things. And every single person was like, so happy they did it and said it was so worth it. And that's like what we've heard on the CMT side of things too. And I'm just like, it makes me. It like makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. I'm like, because one like you all are living out like your best lives as the specialists that you desire to be and like truly stepping into like your desired specialty. I'm like, but then we know in turn that's actually directly impacting who you hire into your practice, who you treat in your practice, the families you work with, the professionals you choose to network with and refer to. Right? It's like everything has such a trickle down effect. And so now I'm just like, well, how do we even go bigger? Like, how do we know? And like now we're. And I haven't really put this out there publicly much, but now we're actually looking to work with hospitals on a much higher level and not just work with just the feeding therapist, but also train the individuals who are like anybody who's involved in a feeding case. So not with Feed the Pizza. Like, we'll have Feed the Pizza available at something that the hospitals can get for like their therapist still, but building out another section that's like, for everyone else so that we're all starting to like, talk the same language and we have an understanding of what we all do all the way around.

Right?

There's just such a disconnect. And then a lot of these kids that, you know, maybe come out of the hospital, out of the PICU or nicu, who end up at home sometimes end up back in the hospital, you know, especially NICU babies and. And. Or they go home and the parents don't really know what to do with them. And then maybe you're getting some of those kids into, you know, your caseload.

You're.

You know, you're. Because you guys are through the. I forget California.

You said it's the regional centers is what they're called.

They're then going into the home and working with some of these kids. And so I'm like, if we, like. I don't want to say standardized, because I really don't love. That works. I feel like standardized tests are, like, a very strict. No way. But it's sort of. We could kind of like, make this more of a cohesive. Yeah, cohesive. Cohesive, collaborative approach and have, like, similar language and similar understandings of what's going on, understanding who does what on the team and how we all work together and then how we support these families in transitioning home, if that's where they're headed. And then the therapists who work with them outside of. You know, I'm like, if we could actually. I'm like, this is like my big, beautiful, like, I know. Idea that I'm like, pretty much, if.

You take Callie's course, you're gonna see that there's a need to be filled. And when you start to fill that need, you're gonna see there's a bigger picture. And once you start to step into that bigger picture, guess what? There's an even bigger picture. And I just. That's what this does. Like.

Like, if you do a mouse, a.

Cookie, you just start, like, seeing, like, like. Okay. And then, like, you know, you're. Which is. You're so motivated to keep going. Right? To keep touching those, like, higher tiers of professionals. And. And ultimately, all of this is for the same mission. We all have the same mission, which is just better treat for the kid and.

Right. Let's get the kids off wait lists.

Let's.

That was like, my whole goal getting. Was getting children off pediatric feeding. Wait list is like, they don't have the time to wait. No, they need to go now. There's not enough of us to do that either. Whether you're in a hospital, you're in a private practice, you're in A school you're in, a regional whatever, wherever you work, inpatient, outpatient, you know, rehab center, whatever, private practice. There are not enough of us that are trained and know how to help these kids. And so I'm like, okay, we've now trained, like, probably over 2,700 SLPs and OTS, which is freaking amazing, because if you think about how many more kids impacted just from that number like, alone, like, let's say. Let's say that, you know, each person only sees 20 cases per year. Like, holy cow, that's. That's huge, right?

20 more than they would have. Like, and that's the point, right?

More than they would have. And if you. I'm like, over here, doing the math, I'm like, that's 54,000 kids. And like, okay, most of us are seeing way more than 20 feeding cases a year, right? So maybe not everybody practices in feeding even though they took the course. And we'll account for, maybe people retire, whatever, right? All the different nuances. Either way, I'm like, the hundreds of thousands of kids, lives that are now being impacted, that wouldn't have been because either people didn't feel confident or competent or they hadn't even taken a feeding course yet. I'm like, I just. I feel like we've made a dent, but there's still such a greater need. And I'm like, okay, now that we've made that dent, like, how do we move the needle further? How do we move the needle faster? Like, how do we make a bigger impact in the lives of these kids and their families? And so anyways, I just. I love all of you. Like, every single one of you who has invested in this because you're really investing in yourself. And then all of these families and children. And, you know, a lot of us, we're in a helping profession. We all get into it because we want to help people, right?

And so, like, now we have graduate students seeking us to out knowing that we have these skills, right? And they want to learn because same thing, like, their programs aren't supporting the same kind of education that they feel like they need in order to maybe be more competent to serve this population. And that's something I never even, like, thought of or considered is like, wow, someone's seeking me out to learn because they know I've done these things. So that's. It's amazing. Ripple.

I carry more and more of that. Somebody actually told me One of our CPFTs last night said, I decided to. To. They're like, because I have so much time, because this person owns a private practice, too, and has always worked with the babies and started working with toddlers because of taking cpft. And she's like, I never thought it would work for anybody but babies. She's like, but I went and interviewed with the NICU because, I don't know, I kind of want to get into the NICU at least a couple days a week or something. And she's like, and the PT that hired me had heard about, or not hired, but who interviewed her, she's like, had heard about Feed the peds. And I was like, oh, good, we've infiltrated the system. Now how do we get this? Let's move the needle faster. But it was cool because we keep hearing that where people are telling me knows, like, CPFT more so than anything else, but they're like, you know, I just have people referring to me now because they decided, like, I'm an expert, or I've now been like, the hospital, you know, physiatrist is coming to me and asking for my advice on things and taking my advice, like, point blank as a speech pathologist, because I'm getting the certification. And I'm like, I think there's a lot of education that we can be doing. Whether you've taken Feed the Peeds, the MYO method, or you get one of the certifications. You're a cert, you know, you're a CMT, right? So you get the certification in myO or you will get the certification in feeding Pediatric Feeding. The way that we position ourselves and the way that we start to talk about, like, our cases and collaborate with others, like, they will start to see you through the lens of being that specialist, and then they will respect you in a really different way than, you know, before. And, like, you don't have to be certified for that to happen, but you do have to be educated and you do need to, like, feel really confident in the work you're doing, still fully knowing that nobody knows everything. There's so much more to learn, and we are always all stumped by cases, like, all the time. Like, I'm not.

Don't.

Don't mince my words here, right? So, yeah. So anyways, this is why I created Feed the Peeds in the first place. And it's so wild because five years ago, I would have had no clue that this is where I would have been headed right now, like, that this would have been our, like, 2026 goal. But it's exciting. It's exciting to, like, get on. I'M like, I'm having fun getting on the phone with rehab directors and clinic directors who are like, trying to champion us up the chain, you know, to others to see if we can do this. Stay tuned.

I will, I'm excited. Like, I'll be waiting.

That program when, like, it was pretty new, but yeah, it's exactly why I've created it. And I know it's the, the same reason, like when you're talking about creating education for parents and just wanting to get this information into their hands. Because I think one of the other things that came up too is that there's still such a disconnect in what parents hear from different providers. Right. So whether it's. And I was talking to like a smaller rehab center yesterday and they said, you know, they said we're, they're Medicaid based and they get, they said we're kind of a second line therapy for.

A lot of people.

Like, they're coming to us, they've already had services elsewhere and, or were supplemental and, or they're coming to us because they're hoping for a answer. And so they'll, you know, sometimes parents might like withhold information because they want to see what we say without like muddying waters and like, you know, anyway, so it was really interesting because I was like, you know, there's just so many nuances to the work that we do. But I'm like, if we could all get on the same page and parents could feel really educated and empowered to have these conversations with professionals and realize, like, we are all on the same team. Like, I don't think I'm smarter than you, you know your child better than me. And like, I always try to tell parents, you know, I want to arm you with information so you feel really good about the conversation. But also like, not every professional knows everything either. So don't feel like you have to, you know enough to have the combo about your child and just, you know, your child. So you don't need to know all the professional lingo or all the nuances. Like, we just need to know what's, what's going on. Like, how's this impacting your life? How's this impacting your child's life? Like, how can we help you? Why are you here? Right. Anyway, so I think it'll be really cool to see what you roll out for parents education.

Yeah, I mean, that's the backbone of our practice is being able to empower, you know, our parents with knowledge and support of being their child's best advocate. Because they already are. And no one knows their child better and their gut. That's not wrong. So, yeah, we're here to just hear them on and give them some more of that lingo that may get them a little further, even though it shouldn't. But it seems to work that way sometimes.

Yeah. I mean, we also have to consider that when you're working in a medical system that's dictated by insurance companies and what gets pushed through or doesn't, that lingo can be very helpful. And, you know, in my private practice, we'll provide like an insurance guy because we're out of network, but we'll be like, call your insurance. Here's the exact questions to ask. Here are the codes you can check on. We're not saying these are the codes yet. We're just saying check on them and find out what they're willing to give you. Information wise, you at least have an idea what may or may not be covered when you submit on your. Right. And so it's another podcast. A whole nother podcast. Exactly, Exactly. Okay, so to kind of wrap this up and tie it up with a pretty bow. I really love this because I feel like this has kind of come full circle. Like, you, you know, stepped into pediatric feeding, you took feed the peds, you took my cmt, all the fun things. You're a clinic owner, you are, you're a business partner. You're now, you're now creating. Right? So you're now in a position where you can educate parents, community. And I just think that's such a beautiful thing. That's like being born out of all of this. Because at the end of the day, like, we all want to help, right? Like, we all just want the best for our patients and their families. And, you know, I know as a mom of a child who is a picky. Call her a pickry, picky, selective eater, you know, and it's gotten better at age 10. But it was, you know, it was kind of rough there for a while between age. I don't know, age. What was she like, 2 and 9? You know, having lived that and then having my kids, you know, with airway issues and going through expansion appliances and going through myofunctional therapy and literally living everything that I teach. Right. Like, you start to, like, realize same everybody else's. Right?

Yeah, it's, you know, I think the whole idea of just taking your course was to just be this little solo practitioner that just had her little, you know, nurture, well, business. And it just exploded in a very short Amount of time.

Officially. Like, do you remember, like, the month of. And year.

It was like, the same month I filmed the first one with you. So I want to say it was like October 2020.

Okay. Okay.

Yeah. And so that's. I was, like, taking the course I had filmed with you, and I was taking on feeding clients mid course, so. And then it just evolved into really, like, evolved.

Like, if you could you have known two years ago that this is where you would be in December of 2025, like. Like, just two years after launching this practice and growing the way that you have. And now you're gonna go create stuff to educate the public. Like, yeah, like how.

Yeah, here we are. It's. You know, personally, you just. I'm just here for the ride, right? Like, I'm just taking one step at a time and, you know, doing. Yeah. Just like, the best that I can do and what that looks like realistically, while still being a mom and just. It's. It's good stuff. It's all. All good. So good.

I love this.

I love this.

All right, so any last things that you want to share before we wrap up?

No, I mean, it's. I think we covered a lot of it today of just, like, when you step through that door, if you have that tug of, like, you're considering, you know, going into the feeding world. Absolute. Yes. It will forever change you if you let it, and it really just doesn't. There are no limits to the way you can impact someone's life. And I've always gone about, like, speech pathology in general, that if I can impact one person's life for the better, then I'm doing my job. Even if it's just one. Right. And we know just for the sake of feeding therapy in general and just the lack of resources in many communities around it, like, you're already doing better. Like, step through that. You know, step into that. Step through it. Do it.

I love that advice. I like it chills when I hear, like, these conversations. I'm just.

It's.

It's so true. And I think a lot of us get so overwhelmed at the thought of it, and it feels a little scary, especially if you don't have any med, SLP background, a speech pathologist, like, anywhere you went to grad school. And, like, I had dysphagia training, but for adults only.

Okay.

Both undergrad and grad, I had absolutely zero pediatric feeding. Like, we didn't even talk about, like, typical development or what happens in Euro. Like, zero. Yeah, zero. And I was even told, like, And I loved my program. I did. And I loved my supervisors. But I was told, like, oral motor is a dirty word. We don't believe in that here. Like, it was so far gone from. I, like, left not knowing how to do articulation therapy because I was like, well, I don't get it. Like, how do I work on these? Sounds like I left grad school, no joke. Not knowing how to do Arctic and having to, like, teach myself that. So if that tells you anything, anyways, fast forward. You know, I just think that, like, it feels. It can feel so scary and overwhelming to just even start with that first patient. Especially when you're, like, looking at, like, the whole world of people who need you in front of you, and you're like, oh, my gosh, like, no, not, like, shut down. Can't do any of this. And so I love your advice of just one person. If you can impact and help just one person today, like, amazing. That's one more person than if you hadn't gotten started. And I think it's just getting started like you were talking about. If you can just go after it started. Once you do, like, you've already. You've literally done the hardest part of it. Because that's the big difference between those who succeed and those who don't in whatever you want to specialize in is, like, the person who actually got started and chose to keep going. There are a thousand steps ahead of you because they got started. Like, that's literally what it takes, right? So I love that advice because it's really simple and it can make such a overwhelming, scary thing feel a lot less overwhelming and scary. So that's just a beautiful suggestion. Thank you.

Yeah, thank you.

Well, I'm really glad that you joined us back on the podcast and I'm so excited to have, like, this whole amazing, huge update, like, in all aspects of life for you, life and business. So thank you for joining us today, Kelly, and sharing all of that with us. And I can't wait to see how everything continues to expand and grow in your life.

Yes, Hallie, thank you so much. I always appreciate talking with you and yeah, bring on 2026 fun things.

Quick disclaimer. All information, content and material of this podcast are the opinions of the speakers and is for the informational purpose only and not intended to serve as a substitute for the consultation, diagnosis, and or medical treatment of a qualified healthcare provider. Thanks for listening to this podcast. If you found value in this episode and want to hear more of these Myotots, Airway and Feeding related episodes. Be sure to leave a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode on your social media platforms. You can access free resources and all I offer@halliebalkin.com or pop over to Hollybulcan on Instagram to get all the latest updates.