Protea Therapy

04/05/2026

This is a big one for us! PFD (Paediatric Feeding Disorder) and ARFID (Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder) Awareness Month aims to draw attention to these under-recognised and poorly understood conditions that make up almost all of what we do at Protea Therapy. PFD and ARFID can be really stressful for kids and families, and can have wide-ranging impacts on health and participation. does an amazing job of advocating and educating about PFD and ARFID, and we highly recommend their resources, like this webpage defining PFD for families: https://www.feedingmatters.org/is-it-pfd/. Spoiler alert from the seminal 2019 consensus statement by Goday et al.: PFD is “impaired oral intake that is not age-appropriate and is associated with medical, nutritional, feeding skill, and/or psychosocial dysfunction”

PFD is our core business and we love supporting kids, families, and professionals to learn more about PFD and how to manage it. If you need help, we have our new intake form here: https://www.proteatherapy.com.au/new-clients and our professional supervision form here: https://www.proteatherapy.com.au/supervision-bookings or you can call us on (03) 7034 6944.

30/04/2026

We're one day early, but tomorrow is Undiagnosed Children's Day. We see lots of kids with rare syndromes at Protea Therapy, but we also see lots of kids with medical and developmental conditions for which they don't have any explanation. Some of these families may eventually get a diagnosis, and some will not. This is a tough journey, because it makes it so hard for families to connect with others with similar experiences, to understand their child's present and future, and to access appropriate supports. We love the work of in supporting these families (and note that they're fighting to stay open right now, in case you are in search of a good cause to donate to).

If you need support with feeding for a child with a rare or undiagnosed condition, we can help. Call us on (03) 7034 6944 or fill out a new client form at https://www.proteatherapy.com.au/new-clients

23/04/2026

You can't make anything if you don't make a mess! Letting babies and kids get messy when they eat is an important step in their learning. It doesn't have to be every time, and you can use whatever strategies help the clean up (splash mat under the chair, full body smock, feed them outdoors, buy a dog...) but messy eating helps kids learn to be more independent and adventurous eaters. Invest in the mess! It won't be forever.

If you need help navigating mealtimes that feel like a different kind of mess, we can help. Get in touch at (03) 7034 6944 or https://www.proteatherapy.com.au/new-clients

16/04/2026