Parent Testimonial | Blake's Mom

When we first came to Carol, we felt like we were in a hopeless situation with our son’s eating. We shared our concerns with his pediatrician after years of struggling to get him to eat a wider variety of nutritious foods, and Carol came highly recommended to us as a feeding specialist.

From the very beginning, Carol understood that this was not simply “picky eating.” She took the time to understand our son’s anxiety around foods tasting or smelling bad, his texture sensitivities, and the slow eating that made mealtimes so difficult. She approached him with patience, warmth, and real expertise, while also making sure the sessions felt fun, positive, and encouraging. He truly enjoyed his time with Carol and looked forward to their interactions.

Carol was also incredibly thorough from a medical perspective. She recommended that we have him evaluated by an ENT to make sure there was not an underlying physical issue contributing to his feeding challenges, which gave us confidence that we were doing all the right things.

The progress he has made with Carol has been truly life-changing. Our son now eats a much wider variety of foods that fit into a well-balanced diet, and mealtimes are no longer filled with the same stress and worry. More importantly, he feels more confident around food and often tries new foods at his own request! This is something I would not have believed possible before we started with Carol.

Carol has made our son's quality of life better, and she has made a lasting difference for our entire family. We are deeply grateful for her kindness, patience, and expertise, and we would recommend her without hesitation to any family facing similar feeding challenges.

Parent Testimonial | Easton's Parents

When we found Carol at Pediatric Feeding Services, we had already exhausted every option we knew of — our pediatrician, clinical physical and occupational therapy, and the onsite speech and feeding therapy at our son’s school. We had even had him evaluated for autism (he was not on the spectrum). Nothing had made a difference. He ate only 8 to 10 foods in total, with no meat, fruit, vegetables, or pasta, and mealtimes had become a source of stress and frustration for our entire family. We were beginning to lose hope.

What set Carol apart was her willingness to look deeper. She recognized that our son’s difficulties were not simply picky eating and anxiety but stemmed from an underlying mechanical issue: his enlarged adenoids and tonsils left him very little room to swallow, which caused gagging and choking and, in turn, intensified his anxiety. No one before her had connected those dots.

From that understanding, Carol rebuilt our son’s confidence gradually and deliberately, working over seven months in a calm, supportive environment. Just as importantly, she did not work with him in isolation. After each weekly session, she equipped us as parents with practical tools and strategies to reinforce his progress at home.

The results have been remarkable. Our son now eats more than 57 new foods, including meat — ground beef, chicken, steak, and seafood, prepared a variety of ways — as well as multiple fruits and vegetables, and pasta. Mealtimes are now genuinely enjoyable, and our family can dine out together without anxiety about his limitations.

Our son recently graduated from Carol’s program; a milestone we were not certain we would ever reach. If you feel you have exhausted every avenue and are out of options, Carol is the person to call. We spent a few months on Carol’s waitlist before therapy could begin — and we are so glad we waited for availability. She has been worth every penny and then some — and we are profoundly grateful to have found her.

Parent Testimonial | Will’s mom

Our neurodivergent son, Will, has been a restricted eater for as long as we can remember. We used to pack dozens of a specific brand of power bars every time we went on vacation, just in case, he wouldn’t eat in unfamiliar restaurants. He would eat pizza, but only one brand. He refused to try new things, and when he did, he’d quickly spit them out. Even though his list of foods was small, we managed, until he started maxing out on that list. One by one, his “safe foods” dropped away. Grilled cheese, once a favorite, was suddenly off the table. We didn’t want to bribe him to eat or hide healthy ingredients in his food. We wanted him to genuinely expand his palate and feel comfortable trying new things. That’s when we called Carol Elliott. To say we felt desperate is an understatement.

From the start, Carol positioned herself as Will’s compassionate and experienced advocate. He immediately warmed up to her, something that doesn’t come easily for him. She completely “got” Will: his quirks, his likes and dislikes, his need for predictability. Instead of pushing against those things, she worked with them. Carol was patient, encouraging, nonjudgmental, and incredibly knowledgeable.

The progress has been extraordinary. Will went from eating mostly carb-heavy snacks to enjoying edamame, carrots, Gouda cheese, turkey and cheese subs, cheeseburger sliders, ramen bowls, and more. We recently attended a family wedding and, for the first time, didn’t have to pack power bars. Will ate from the buffet! Carol truly changed his life (and ours). She has been such a gift to our family, and we’re forever grateful for her kindness and expertise.

Debbie, mom of Will age 13

Parent Testimonial | Maddux’s mom

When our son was around 2 years old, he took a pretty nasty fall into a windowsill that resulted in him having to get 8 stitches in his tongue. About 6 months after that, we noticed that he was starting to become a pretty picky eater. Foods that he had been eating no problem, now were a struggle. He would gag on certain foods which we were told at his yearly well visit, was just him being picky and his way of getting out of eating foods he did not want to eat. This went on for years. He was gaining weight so when I would bring up his eating habits, they were written off as “picky eating”. Fast-forward to February 2023, I took him in for his 6 year checkup to find that he had only gained one pound from the age of 5-6. After explaining (again) his eating habits and telling him the reason that he was not gaining weight was because he only will eat about 5 foods and is completely content going all day without eating, their solution was getting bloodwork done. 

I had done some research on feeding therapy before this time (mom instinct was telling me something was just not right) and had found Carol’s site. As soon as I left that appointment, I immediately called her. She was the first medical professional that I felt asked the right questions and believed that there was something else going on other than just a “picky eater” situation. 

While we were waiting to see her, she told me that I needed to get him into a pediatric nutritionist to ensure that he did not start losing weight and recommended that we get him in to see Dr. Dodson an ENT at the children’s hospital. Both recommendations made a world of difference. Upon examination at the ENT, we found out that his adenoids were extremely enlarged, and he had about 5-10% access to his nasal airway. 

At this point, he had one ear infection and one case of strep throat, so we had no reason to think that his adenoids were the root cause of his eating issues. Carol did though! Dr. Dodson told us that the tongue injury was more than likely related to inflamed adenoids and that they had been slowly getting bigger and bigger which led to his eating getting harder and harder for him because he was trying to breathe, chew and swallow all using his mouth. 

We got his adenoids removed in May and started feeding with Carol in June. At this time, even though structurally he was good, after years struggling with eating, he had a massive mental block when it came to trying new foods. Carol was compassionate with both of us. As a mom, having the guilt of learning that your child was struggling more than either of you realized was hard and I never once felt that she was judging me for that. 

She kept the session fun and lighthearted but also structured which is what he needed. When she started working with him, he was eating 5-7 foods regularly and would not try any new foods or even branch off from different variations of his safe foods. We finished working with Carol at the beginning of January 2024. When he graduated, he had tried 85+ new foods and he is currently 2 foods away from 100 new foods since we started our journey with Carol! 

She was a lifesaver not only for our son but our family as a whole. He has learned that new foods are not scary. We love Carol and cannot imagine where we would be right now without our experience working with her.