Kaitlyn is a pediatric speech-language pathologist who has worked for almost four years within the inpatient and outpatient settings of the hospital. She provides assessment and treatment for medically complex infants, children, and adolescents with feeding and swallowing disorders. She has a vast amount of experience treating premature infants with underlying medical diagnoses within a Level IV NICU, the highest level of a NICU that cares for the most complex and critically ill newborns. Many of her patients have tubes that are fed directly to the stomach to provide primary means of hydration/nutrition. It is her goal to improve swallow safety and efficiency to ultimately transition the infant to full oral feeds and wean use of tube feeds. In addition, she performs Modified Barium Swallows (x-ray swallow study) to assess swallow safety/function and to determine the safest feeding plan. She provides recommendations regarding bottle system/flow rate, nipple shape, positions, and feeding modifications (e.g., external pacing, half filled nipple).

In addition, Kaitlyn helps infants and toddlers having difficulty transitioning to purees and age-appropriate solids. She provides feeding techniques to reduce gagging and choking episodes, improve oral motor skills, and improve exploration of novel food items. She also provides strategies for transitioning infants/toddlers to age-appropriate cups (e.g., sippy cup, open cup). Furthermore, Kaitlyn focuses on expanding the food repertoire for picky eaters.