Category: PFD Awareness Month

As Pediatric Feeding Disorder Awareness Month comes to a close this May, it is essential to reflect on the accomplishments achieved during this significant month. This May we have aimed to raise awareness, promote understanding, and provide support for children and families affected by pediatric feeding disorder. In this blog post, we’ll highlight some of the notable accomplishments and milestones reached during this impactful awareness month.

1. Increased Public Awareness: Through a collaborative effort of healthcare professionals, organizations, and fundraising champions, this awareness month has succeeded in bringing attention to pediatric feeding disorder. Social media posts, new webinars, collaborations, and community events have helped spread the word, reaching a wider audience and generating conversations about this often-silent condition.

• Governor Katie Hobbs (Arizona) presented the Arizona PFD awareness month proclamation to Feeding Matters.
• Governor Jim Pillen (Nebraska) presented the Nebraska PFD awareness month proclamation to providers from Munroe-Meyer Institute.
• 16 states have proclaimed that May is PFD Awareness Month! Click here to see all of them. This is a record for us!
• Our Instagram account has reached 136,000 accounts and has had a 98% increase in engaged accounts
• We have hit 11.1K followers on Instagram
• We have already raised $11,000 through Call it PFD: Feed the Cause and have 30 fundraising champions.
• PFD presentations were made to individuals in Ohio, New Jersey, Southern California, and Arizona.
• We hosted an exhibitor booth at the National Head Start Association conference where over 4000 people attended.

2. Educations and Resources: One of the key accomplishments of Pediatric Feeding Disorder Awareness Month is the development and dissemination of educational materials and resources. We have collaborated with various organizations and healthcare professionals to create webinars, podcasts, and downloadable resources, ensuring that accurate and helpful information is readily available for our community.

• The International Pediatric Feeding Disorder Conference continues to be offered on demand and has over 1,000 attendees.
• Jaclyn Pederson and The Family Nutritionist did an Instagram live to talk about picky eating and when it may be something more.
• Jaclyn Pederson and The Allergy Chef did an Instagram live.
• Our team had a live conversation with leaders from our PFD Alliance on Facebook Live to talk about conference takeaways and future initiatives.
• FUSS: Formula Use Should be Simple webinar sponsored by Reckitt/Mead Johnson Nutrition went live on our Learning Center for 1.00 AMA PRA Category 1 Credits.
• Feeding Matters was a guest on First Bite podcast.

3. Support Networks: Pediatric Feeding Disorder Awareness Month has fostered the growth of support networks for families dealing with PFD. Our Power of Two program has grown and we have been able to support more families to provide a safe space for sharing experiences, seeking advice, and finding emotional support.

Pediatric Feeding Disorder Awareness Month has achieved significant milestones in raising awareness, providing education and resources, establishing support networks, and fostering collaboration. However, the work doesn’t end with this month. Let’s continue to build on these accomplishments, promote understanding, and strive for better outcomes for children and families affected by pediatric feeding disorder throughout the year.

Friends of Feeding Matters,

I’m always interested in new trends and emerging technologies, so I’ve been exploring the new AI tool, ChatGPT. Recently, I asked ChatGPT: what does it take to create a movement?

It shared that a movement requires a combination of vision, leadership, engagement, planning, resources, and persistence.

For me, this answer was validating. It’s exactly what we experience in the Feeding Matters community – a movement for pediatric feeding disorder (PFD). The opportunity to support all families on their feeding journey.

This month, our community was able to engage through the success of our International PFD Conference, which is also available on-demand for full credit through the end of May. This trauma-informed, evidence-based event brought together nearly 1,000 registrants from over 65 countries to learn the latest research, hear from families’ lived experience, and to receive tangible ways to improve practice. We were honored to see the active involvement of both parents and professionals collaborating to advance PFD research and practice.

During the conference, we received powerful feedback from attendees, including quotes such as, “I am so excited to see the inclusion of family voices into the development of care plans,” and “The collaboration across systems with this research! Great work!!” We also recognize the importance of emotional support for families and appreciate the reminder that an attendee shared in the chat, “Difficult feelings may surface in the future, even if they haven’t yet.”

Carrying forward the success and community built from the conference, we are eager for the arrival of May and PFD Awareness Month. During the month, we invite you to help us spread awareness of PFD and raise funds to help us do this important work. Together, we are building a movement for PFD, and your engagement and persistence allows us to create the world we all envision, a world where children with PFD will thrive.

Thank you for your ongoing support of Feeding Matters and for being part of the movement. This community is changing the world.

Best,

Jaclyn Pederson, MHI
Feeding Matters CEO

We recently held a contest asking for designs for our PFD Awareness Month merchandise store. We are excited to share our contest winner! This design was created by Madison O’Brien, an Oregon based Speech Pathologist who also has a sibling with a history of a pediatric feeding disorder.

Madison shared her inspiration for the design:

“Parents of children with a Pediatric Feeding Disorder experience high levels of stress and are more likely to develop anxiety and depression than parents of children without feeding difficulties (Rodriguez 2022). So many parents of kids with PFD have expressed to me that they’re barely holding on. I just want them to know they’re not alone and that it’s valid to feel that way.”

Thank you for your design Madison! You can purchase this design, and others, at our merchandise store here.

Reference
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2341287922001922