Using the FEEDS Toolkit (Focus on early eating and drinking) to support shared decision making

The FEEDS Toolkit is an evidence-based resource providing information about eating, drinking, and swallowing (EDS) difficulties in children with neurological or neurodevelopmental conditions, and about evidence-based interventions to support safe and effective eating and drinking. The Toolkit brings together easy-to-understand information about interventions that parents can use at home for children with physical and non-physical EDS difficulties, supported by their health professional team. It is a colourful, easy-to-print booklet co-produced by parents and healthcare professionals (full disclosure: I was one of the professionals involved).

The Toolkit is designed to help parent carers and healthcare professionals work together to identify and prioritise the support or interventions a child may need.

Development of an eating and drinking toolkit was a recommended outcome of the FEEDS Study. This study reviewed the evidence-base for existing EDS interventions. It also determined which parent-delivered interventions are recommended by UK National Health Service professionals, which interventions parents use at home and how parents and professionals evaluate whether or not an intervention is successful.

Multidisciplinary professionals, including Speech and Language Therapy, Dietetics and Play Specialists, have been using the FEEDS Toolkit with families within NHS community services. It has greatly supported discussions with parent carers about their child’s EDS difficulties and helped explain potential interventions.

The Toolkit has had a positive impact on joint goal setting, agreeing action plans, reviewing progress and evaluating outcomes for each child and family. It has also supported interdisciplinary working, improving communication and accountability between professionals. This is particularly important when teams are not co-located and joint visits are not always possible.

Professionals using the FEEDS Toolkit with families carefully consider the timing of its introduction in relation to an individual child and family journey in the context of what else may be happening in family life. The Toolkit can be especially helpful when a child needs multiple interventions in parallel or delivered in sequence. However, one colleague also used it to reassure parents when their child did not require multiple interventions.

Feedback from families using the FEEDS Toolkit in partnership with their usual health professionals has been positive. Parents have told us it has given them practical ideas to discuss with their child’s healthcare professionals. They have appreciated having all the information they need in one place and have used the Toolkit to explain their child’s needs to other caregivers, such as grandparents or nursery staff. It also provides a record of their child’s feeding journey that they can keep and own.

One parent commented: “Just the little things we’ve been able to put in place have really made a big difference.” Another parent valued being able to revisit the information: “I could check how we were implementing interventions, read more about what might help, and then ask the SLT.”

To find out more about the FEEDS Toolkit and access training go to: go.ncl.ac.uk/FEEDStraining

Elisa Liu, MS, SLP
Paediatric Speech and Language Therapist – Acute and Neuroscience
Royal Victoria Infirmary