Eating first meal a milestone for Emma
Concert celebrates Societyâs birth
EMMA Coles was only able to eat her first full meal of solid foods when she was 11 years old. And that was years after she began working with Peninsula Health speech pathologist Danielle Surwald to overcome a case of severe food aversion. âYou always get people saying theyâve got a fussy eater at home but itâs not quite the same,â mum Roz Coles said. Emma could only tolerate liquids until she was seven years old and then progressed to purees. Until recently, her diet consisted of just soup and yoghurt. In a milestone event last month, Emma ate her first proper meal â and finished it all. âMy other kids wanted nuggets and chips and I decided to get her one and just see how she goes,â Mrs Coles said. âI sat there with her and said, âI know you struggle with this, but weâve been practising so letâs give it a goâ. âThen she ate the whole thing and enjoyed it!â Ms Surwald regards the event as a âsignificant milestoneâ. âEmma has had to work hard to overcome her sensory and emotional responses to food,â she said. âShe has had to teach herself to bite and chew solid foods, something most of us take for granted. She is now setting her own goals and finding pleasure in eating. âIt has been an amazing journey for all those involved and Emma should be very proud of herself.â Ms Surwald started seeing Emma
FRANKSTON Music Society will celebrate its golden anniversary with an Afternoon at the Proms concert at Frankston Arts Centre this week. The society was formed in 1967 by famous Australian and international pianist Vera Bradford and a small group of Frankston residents. Among their first actions was to establish a symphony orchestra â an action which will be celebrated at the proms concert on Sunday 27 August. Frankston Symphony Orchestra will perform Gershwinâs Rhapsody in Blue with guest soloist Leigh Harrold. Other items will be Waltonâs Crown Imperial with PYMS, Bernsteinâs Candide Overture, Koehneâs Horse Opera from Inflight Entertainment, and Graingerâs Molly on the Shore. At the function, Mornington Peninsula Chorale will sing The Heavens are Telling from The Creation by Haydn, Rodgers and Hammersteinâs On Broadway Medley and All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey. Vera Florence Bradford was born on 5 September 1904 and died just a few months short of her 100th birthday. She studied piano at Melbourne University and, in her early 20s, travelled to the US to study with Percy Grainger. They became lifelong friends. âEven though she travelled, and played to great acclaim, Bradford always longed to return home and to give back to it the beauty of the music she so loved,â society member Jane Kelley said. âIt was through Vera and a dedicated band of local people that we now have wonderful music on the peninsula.â
Taste treat: Emma gets stuck into some chicken sticks. Picture: Supplied
when she turned one after the Cranbourne East girl began attending Frankston Hospital for speech pathology appointments. âDanielle has been working with Emma teaching her how to chew and strengthening up her jaw,â Mrs Coles said. âShe gave Emma a chew toy and some exercises and weâve just kept working on that, pushing her boundaries and slowly, slowly desensitising her to food.â Frankston Hospital spokeswoman Jessica Mills said the role of the speech pathologist was to work with those with speech or communication difficulties, as well as help those with feeding and swallowing
difficulties. For instance, when babies have difficulty sucking during breast or bottle feeding they might come to an infant feeding clinic which is run by speech pathologists. Or, a stroke victim may have lost the ability to swallow, she said. âSpeech pathologists may recommend changes to the textures of foods or drinks, and provide rehabilitation techniques and exercises to help people swallow safely. âFood aversion is on the more extreme end of the scale and the speech pathologist worked with Emma over the years to build up her tolerance to food and has most recently been doing exercises with
Emma to strengthen her jaw and teach her how to chew. Itâs something we take for granted but, as sheâs never been able to eat solid food before, she never had to chew.â Mrs Coles is also delighted with her daughterâs progress. âShe still has pureed food for breakfast and lunch because we need to get food into her but she now will also eat chicken nuggets, chicken strips, hot chips, potato chips or biscuits. âItâs nice to know now we can go out for dinner as a family and I know itâs not the healthiest of options but we donât have to bring soup with us.â She praised Ms Surwaldâs âcrucial roleâ in helping Emma overcome her food aversion over the years. âWe wouldnât be where we are now without Danielle,â Mrs Coles said. âShe has just worked so hard and so tirelessly over the years. Iâve always known that if I get stuck I can just send her an email or give her a call. âItâs been a long journey and one that is still going but weâll keep working on it.â Speech Pathology Week runs until 26 August. To access Peninsula Healthâs speech pathology service, call 1300 665 781.
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