The Emotional Impact of Eating Challenges

To feed a child is fundamental to a parent, it’s instinct. But what if your baby can’t swallow?

After receiving lots of emails to a programme we made on dysphagia – or swallowing difficulties – we were asked to explore the condition as it affects children.

In this edition, Ruth Alexander speaks to parents Kelly Rose, in the UK, and Melanie and Sean Hoffman in Canada, about how they manage their children's conditions and their relationship with food; and to a doctor, Professor Hamdy El-Hakim, who is on a mission to ensure dysphagia is better understood.

And we hear from the children themselves. Three-year-old Bodhi and five-year-old Ophelia share their thoughts about food.

If you would like to get in touch with the show, please email: thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk

(Picture: Bodhi and his mother Kelly Rose. Credit: Kelly Rose/BBC)

Producer: Elisabeth Mahy