Good Neighbor Podcast Estero
Bringing Together -
Local Businesses & Your Neighbors in SWFL
Good Neighbor Podcast Estero
EP# 153 - Kristie Middendorf Shines a Light on Pediatric Therapy Excellence and Community Nurturing
Have you ever wondered what it takes to transform a child's life through therapy? Kristie Middendorf from Core Pediatric Therapy joins us to unravel the intricacies of pediatric occupational therapy, sharing a journey that pivoted from a future in physical therapy to the richly rewarding world of helping children thrive. With over thirty years of experience, Kristie details her innovative techniques that cater to youngsters from infancy to adolescence. We tackle the hard-hitting truths about running a private practice, the delicate act of juggling professional and personal life, and the common myths surrounding occupational therapy. Get ready to be enlightened by Kristie's passion and expertise, which are shaping the future of pediatric therapy one child at a time.
This episode is also a toast to the champions of community well-being, as we shine a light on the critical role early intervention plays in infant feeding issues, particularly to bolster successful breastfeeding. I'll share how you can contribute to celebrating these local heroes in Estero by nominating businesses that are making an impact. So, join us for a conversation that's not just about the advancements in pediatric therapy but also honors the heartwarming efforts of our neighbors who are committed to nurturing the health and happiness of our littlest residents.
Core Pediatric Therapy
Kristie Middendorf
9351 Corkscrew Road, Suite 101
Estero, FL 33928
(305) 985-0065
info@corepediatrictherapy.com
WEBSITE
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, cabo, jim Schaller.
Speaker 2:Welcome Good Neighbors to episode number 153 of the Good Neighbor Podcast, estero. Today we have Good Neighbor Kristie Middendorf from Core Pediatric Therapy. Kristie welcome.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, excited to learn a little bit more about what you do and share it with the community here. So, without further delay, let's jump right in. And why don't you share a little bit about what you do over at Core Pediatric Therapy?
Speaker 3:Yeah well, I'm the owner of Core Pediatric Therapy and I'm a pediatric occupational therapist. I'm the sole practitioner in my practice. I've been doing occupational therapy for over 30 years with infants and children and have a variety of experience in different settings, including mostly outpatient pediatrics, but I have also worked inpatient and done some home health as well, so just in the NICU experience and I provide a lot of what do you want to say kind of nontraditional and more advanced treatment approaches for kids, with infants all the way up to teenagers with a variety of different problem areas.
Speaker 2:Wow, so can I ask how you got involved in this industry?
Speaker 3:Do you mean occupational therapy in general?
Speaker 2:Yeah, where'd you get your start? Where'd you get your start?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, you know, when I was, I originally was going to be a physical therapist. I had an uncle who was paralyzed when I was kind of in my younger years and that always kind of sparked my interest and thought that that's really something that I wanted to do, was to help people that way, people that way. And so I was going to take physical therapy in college and literally decided at last minute that I wanted to be an occupational therapist because I had to take one less chemistry and physics class. So that's how.
Speaker 3:I become an occupational therapist and not a physical therapist.
Speaker 2:See, there you go. It's the fancy we're meant to follow. That's it. So we've all had some type of I want to say challenge or maybe obstacle along our journey that we've gone through and now we can look back at. And you know, I don't want to say we're, you know, we're happy we went through it. Maybe we're in a better place and we can look back. Is there something that happened along your journey that you can look back on?
Speaker 3:As far as like when I was figuring out what I wanted to do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or even starting a business. That's family's own right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know I never really thought about opening up my own practice. I worked for a large outpatient facility up north in Iowa and, you know, was able to kind of spread my wings there and and they supported me with a lot of continuing education and kind of let us, you know, evolve um as a center that was more um, unique in our treatment approaches and um, you know, once I had the opportunity to move here to Florida which is always what I wanted to do, you know I opened up my practice and just hit the ground running. I moved down here to kind of slow things down in my life a little bit with my work-life balance.
Speaker 2:How did that work?
Speaker 3:That didn't work at all. However, you know, when you really love what you do and you're passionate, it doesn't seem so much like work. So it's really been amazing. The families here in Southwest Florida are so committed and you know, once they get to me, they're ready to. You know, team up and do the work that they need to help their babies and kids. You know, thrive and do better. So it's it's. It's been the best, best thing ever.
Speaker 2:That is awesome. We love that. So are there any myths or maybe misconceptions surrounding what you do that we could clear up for our listeners?
Speaker 3:Well, I think sometimes when people come to see me, I think and because my my roots are in training, is in a lot of areas, from sensory processing to feeding and swallowing issues that that was a big part of my training and still is, and but they see me doing a lot of body work and not just like if people come to me for feeding, and not just like if people come to me for feeding. I've had several people say to me something about going to a feeding therapist, or their doctor mentions that. I'm like oh wait, wait, that's, we are working on feeding. It's everything's connected. And so I think that I and maybe sometimes I do look more like a traditional physical therapist because I am working on the body, but it's so important because you've got to have stability in the body to support the muscles for sucking and swallowing and those kind of things. So I think that's the one thing that is sometimes confusing.
Speaker 2:Everything's connected somehow.
Speaker 3:You've got to work on it all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, everything's connected somehow. You've got to work on it all? Yeah, so do you see anything I want to say trending or changing in the industry in regards to what you're doing?
Speaker 3:Well, one of the things that are a big part of the referrals I get are babies with tongue ties tongue and lip ties and that's kind of been a big thing as well, as you know mouth breathing later on and myofunctional therapy, and so I think there's a lot of learning that we have to do in the area of tongue and lip ties and I think, you know, once there was a lot more education on that. I think as a whole, providers kind of swung to oh, let's get a release for the tongue and lip ties. That's the answer. That's going to solve everything. To now we're all stepping back going wait a minute, we need to do some other things first to get the best result, because I don't get a lot of babies that come to me before release. They come to me I'm usually the last one they get to post-release and they haven't been able to meet their goals with the release. So I think these babies are much more complicated than just cutting a frenum.
Speaker 2:Right, absolutely. We all learn as we go.
Speaker 3:That's right, it's a process.
Speaker 2:So you mentioned you were from Iowa. What brought you to Southwest Florida other than the beautiful weather?
Speaker 3:I know that's been great. You know we got our foot in the sand here. Several years ago. My husband and I bought a condo on Fort Myers Beach and so we always. It got harder and harder for us to move, to come back, to make a return trip, and it's always been a dream of mine to move here. So with all the COVID stuff, that just made it kind of easy. So that's how I landed here full time.
Speaker 2:Perfect. Now I know you mentioned you're very busy.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You work a lot of hours, but when you have that little bit of free time. What do you enjoy doing?
Speaker 3:Oh, you know well, we just bought our first house down here, so we're enjoying the time in our pool and we love going still going to the beach. We have some friends we hang out with down here and I love to read and I still take a lot of classes for fun.
Speaker 2:For fun.
Speaker 3:You never learn too much, right.
Speaker 2:Right. So so is there one thing you wish our listeners knew about what you do that maybe they're not aware of.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think what's I mean? I've I actually had a therapist last night call me a unicorn, because I think I do have a lot of years of experience. So there's that, and I, you know, I do take a lot of continuing education, have a lot of certifications and advanced training. So I think the therapy that I do is just not your standard stuff and I believe or feel that you know the therapy I do is is very effective. So I feel like the kids are the babies, and the kids don't have to be in therapy as long and the results are are more pronounced than when I was a therapist in my younger years. Kind of doing more standard stuff, I guess.
Speaker 3:So I feel like these advanced treatments really work, and but I do, you know, I can't just fix it myself. I really need the parents to be with me and help do the detective work. So I can, you know, show them what it is that they need to do at home in between the therapy sessions. And that's what I feel like is, you know what, what, what is really the thing that makes those, makes those connections and those improvements these kids improve, and I call it building the foundation of the house instead of just working on, you know, the symptom or the, a specific functional skill. The work that I do helps kids flourish in a variety of areas, whether it's feeding or motor skills or behaviors, or you know, yep, so yeah, you just don't want to solve one issue, you want them to grow, yeah right right.
Speaker 2:So how would our listeners go about contacting you if they had any questions or things they needed to learn?
Speaker 3:Yeah, they can get on my website, core Pediatric Therapy. I have like a consultation email there. They're also welcome to contact me. I talk with all of my patients before scheduling just to make sure that you know it's the right fit and I'm the right therapist to help their child. And yeah, so it's pretty simple. I usually am able to get back to people in a, you know, pretty timely manner and I've I do commit to trying to get the babies in in a week or two because I know when they come to me there's it's usually kind of more crisis At that point.
Speaker 3:it's feeding problems. We're trying to preserve breastfeeding and things like that, so I do try to you know, get them in sooner than later.
Speaker 2:Perfect, perfect. I love it. Thank you for being on the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you for being such a good neighbor.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I hope to see you out in the community soon.
Speaker 3:Yes, thank you very much.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Estero. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnpestero. com. That's gnpestero. com, or call 239-296-2621. Good Neighbor Podcast, astero.