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In this episode, Jacqueline is joined by Kelsey Baker, a Pediatric Occupational Therapist specializing in infant oral development. Jacqueline and Kelsey cover infant feeding, breastfeeding, oral ties, pacifiers and cups, and so much more.

Kelsey is a mom of 2 and uses her personal and professional experience to help families reach their feeding goals and tries to set babies up for lifelong health. This episode explores the first-year milestones from an occupational therapist’s point of view. 

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• Kelsey’s journey, how she got started in occupational therapy, and what exactly is an OT
• What occupational therapists look for when they assess your infant and some things to look out for in development
• How ties affect the entire body and why you want to get them assessed.
• Tips on teething and starting solids from an OT view
• Which cups, pacifiers, and bottles are best and which are not recommended

A glance at this episode:

• [1:50] Kelsey shares her journey with breastfeeding and how she got started in oral development for infants
• [5:46] What an occupational therapist is and how they are different from physical therapists
• [8:36] Some things that Kelsey assesses in an infant as an OT
• [12:20] How to go about getting support if you start to notice anything off with your infant and some key things to look out for
• [17:25] How ties affect the rest of the body
• [20:42] What’s exactly involved in a tie
• [23:10] Some considerations when teething and starting solids
• [25:10] Foods that tend to be easier for toddlers
• [28:06] How babies with ties use bottles and transition to straw cups
• [30:20] Kelsey’s view on some not-so-favorite bottles
• [33:22] How crawling is related to reading
• [38:32] Parents will sometimes realize through their infant why their ailments have arisen, or why a sibling has a certain ailment
• [39:15] Kelsey’s view on pacifiers
• [45:34] Why do we want to transition to cup feeding as early as 6 months
• [48:06] Why an OT doesn’t want you using sippy cups
• [52:38] Kelsey’s advice for the first year and some tips

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