Kimberly A. Brown, Ph.D.

Dr. Brown has been working with families of children with feeding problems for over 20 years. Her patients are a diverse group - from typically developing, anxious children to children with autism, Down Syndrome, and global developmental delays. She can assess and treat many types of feeding problems including food selectivity, food refusal, rigidity, poor oral intake, and poor weight gain. She can address struggles with mealtime schedules, helping a child sit at the table for meals, and offering healthy meals instead of being a "short order cook." In addition to working with children with feeding disorders, Dr. Brown addresses challenges including obesity, choking phobias and pill swallowing.
In order to treat these feeding problems, Dr. Brown works both the child and the family. She teaches families skills they can use at home to improve their child's eating, and gives "assignments" to practice new skills at home. Strategies she uses include:
• developing structure and schedules
• teaching children to sit longer
• pairing familiar foods with similar foods to increase acceptance
• using small steps of interacting with foods to improve variety
• learning to recognize and overcome fear/anxiety about new foods

In order to help children eat better, improve nutrition and reduce family stress at mealtimes, she often works as part of a team. Depending on the situation, this team may include a Registered Dietician, Speech-Language Pathologist, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, and pediatric gastroenterology.

Research