2020, What a Year!

Published by Jaclyn Pederson, Feeding Matters CEO on Dec 29, 2020

2020, what a year!

In 2019, we were proud to share with you the publication of our paper declaring PFD a stand-alone condition -a catalyst for large-scale change and this year we were proud to share a HUGE next step in the journey to bring validity to this condition.

In August, we received word that pediatric feeding disorder will have its own diagnostic code in an upcoming edition of the ICD-10 manual —– meaning that physicians will be able to formally diagnose PFD and children will officially have this on their medical record.

In 2020 alone, we have expanded our support and educational materials for families, hosted our elite international PFD conference that reached all 50 states and over 34 countries providing evidence-based education on PFD, and achieved significant advocacy milestones.

In order bring PFD to the forefront, we need to support our claims with evidence. Therefore, this year, we published our 2nd phase of research on our Infant and Child Feeding Questionnaire in the Journal of Pediatrics. This ground-breaking work opens the door for children to be screened for PFD so that we can prevent the long-term outcomes that occur when we don’t pay attention to this early enough.

Then, we were the catalyst to the research that showed that 1 in 37 children have PFD and even more significant – 1 in 3 to 5 children with a chronic disease has PFD.

We have also secured a formal proclamation naming December PFD Awareness Month from Arizona’s Governor Ducey and a few others states.

And lastly, we now know that PFD will be its own diagnosis which is the foundation that families need for better insurance coverage.

All of this happened this year, during a global pandemic. This is a moment to celebrate!

While it can feel odd to celebrate right now, it is so important to us to honor this success and all of the work from our entire community to achieve these efforts. We have momentum and we are not stopping.

We will be here after this pandemic.

This year’s accomplishments have a very personal meaning to all of our professionals and families.

We need you to continue this momentum with us. The time is now, to take your place at the table to help children with PFD by supporting Feeding Matters.

Please join us in creating a world in which children with PFD thrive. Your donation today directly supports the work we are doing to support families and professionals and to bring PFD to the forefront.