Why Feeding is a "Breathing Sport" 🏃♂️💨
In this brief talk, Hallie Bulkin frames infant and toddler feeding as a "breathing sport," emphasizing that safe, efficient intake depends on tightly coordinated neuromuscular activity across multiple nerves and muscles. She references the ASHA Practice Portal, which categorizes feeding as a complex skill requiring such coordination, and cites research from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition that highlights the critical role of synchronized swallow‑breath patterns. Bulkin identifies three observable clinical signs—open‑mouth posture, low tongue resting position, and poor lip seal—that often indicate a child is expending excessive effort merely to breathe, let alone manage food textures, chew, and form a bolus. She cautions that expecting children with these signs to handle complex feeding tasks may be unrealistic, as they are already struggling to maintain adequate respiration.
