Hallie BulkinAsk HallieAI:Your On-Demand Mentor in Pediatric Feeding & Myo

Why feeding therapy isn't enough on its own 🛑🍴

3 Feb 2026 · 1 min

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In this brief talk Hallie Bulkin explains that feeding therapy alone often fails because it does not address underlying airway and sleep issues. She cites clinical frameworks for orofacial myofunctional disorders (OMDs) used by pediatric hospitals such as Cincinnati Children’s, which highlight that chronic mouth breathing changes muscle tone, resting posture, and coordination. These systemic changes affect feeding, so even highly skilled feeding therapists can hit a wall if the airway is not treated. The key message is that therapists must consider airway and sleep health to treat the whole system rather than just feeding symptoms.

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So let's talk for a moment about why feeding therapy isn't really enough on its own. This is why feeding therapists must understand airway and sleep, because if we don't, we risk treating symptoms instead of systems. And so clinical frameworks around, like, orofacial myofunctional disorders, OMDs, including those that are outlined by, like, pediatric hospitals, like Cincinnati Children's, they emphasize that chronic mouth breathing alters muscle tone, resting posture and coordination. Hello. Like, what are we working on in therapy? All of the above. Right. And feeding lives downstream from all of that. Like, you can be an amazing, top of the line, super excellent feeding therapist and still hit a wall. It happens to all of us, especially if the airway isn't addressed.