FAQ

We recommend an OT assessment as early as possible to provide the most effective care. Early intervention is a well-known evidence-based approach that is highly recommended for practical skills development. We aim to provide highly effective therapy on a cadence and frequency that works for your family.

No referral is needed to see an Occupational Therapist. Contact the office or complete the inquiry form for a 15-minute consultation to determine the best next steps.

Invoices are sent via email after the conclusion of each appointment. By consenting to treatment with BBTH, you are agreeing to our payment terms. Please ensure you follow our fee schedule to avoid disruptions in your treatment plan.

We aim to support you in your OT journey by working with you to understand your needs. Currently, we accept the following:

NDIS Plan and Self-Managed

Private Health Insurance (varies based on coverage)

Chronic Disease Management (CDM) plan provided by your GP

Although babies have a core group of behaviours that tend to be shared amongst most babies, just like children and adults, babies have nuances in behaviour and personality. Each baby will have a unique sensory personality, different thresholds for coping with how they are handled by their parents and caregivers, interests and engagement through play activities, interaction and chat time and perform differently through daily tasks like feeding, bathing and dressing.

Occupational therapists can help parents understand where a baby is in terms of their behavioural, physical and neurological development and work to plan strategies within everyday care to promote optimal developmental progress and ease daily stress for both babies and parents.

Occupational therapists provide support through:

• Identifying infant development from birth
• Interactions with infant
• Recognition of subtle infant behavioural cues.
• Helping with settling and sleep patterns
• Supporting infant self-regulation (self-calming)
• Relieving discomfort for babies (e.g. food intolerances, reflux, GOR)
• Monitoring development and early intervention for preterm infants
• Assisting babies with movement difficulties or developmental delay
• Assessing and providing treatment for babies with developmental risk (movement, play and interactions, including sensory and emotional regulation)

When a baby is born prematurely, their nervous system hasn’t finished developing, which may lead to a disorganised, immature nervous system that cannot tolerate all of the new sensory messages babies are confronted with.

In the womb, babies are curled up, warm and cosy, listening to the natural white noise of their mother’s heartbeat and muted sounds of the outside world. During this time, a baby’s nervous system develops, forming essential nerve cell connections. Preterm babies may have a disruption in these nerve cell connections. While most NICUs work to minimise overstimulation of these still-growing and developing little ones, beeping and buzzing equipment, room lighting, and busy atmospheres can agitate sensitive preterm babies.

You may be able to recognise sensitivities if your preterm baby or toddler presents:

• High sensitivity to noise, light, touch and movement beyond the second birthday.
• Retention of startle reflexes longer than usual.
• Muscles that tend to be stiff, floppy or a mix of both.
• Very distractible, highly active, extremely quiet and sleeps more than expected.
• Increased risk for vision problems.
• Develops oral defensiveness, often due to negative oral experience with feeding tubes, respirators and suctioning. This may interfere with feeding and lead to abnormal muscle tone inside the mouth.

Many of these sensory-based difficulties will resolve as the baby’s nervous system matures.

While a baby’s ears, eyes and other sensory receptors develop during early pregnancy, most neurosensory development occurs in the last 16-20 weeks of pregnancy.

While preterm birth accelerates the maturing of the kidney, gastrointestinal, lung and cardiovascular systems, the neurological processes do not accelerate due to preterm birth. The sequence and timing of neurodevelopment are unchanged as a result of birth.

The environment of the womb contrasted with a preterm baby’s new environment, the NICU, plays a significant role in the altered neurodevelopment observed in preterm babies.

The brain development in the foetus, neonate, and infant includes sensory, motor, social/emotional, and cognitive systems. These systems are connected and integrated during development. Brain development relies on several factors, including genetics, internal brain activity and sleep but also depends mainly on the external environment and appropriate stimulation to support early brain development.

The womb is the perfect sensory space for a baby, nature’s perfectly designed swaddle. In contrast, the NICU is a sterile environment allowing little to no interaction with your little one. In addition, their fragile sensory systems are overstimulated.

• It lacks physical boundaries to make your baby feel contained and no swaddling.
• Constant changes in temperature
• Frequent light touch when changing monitors/cables etc
• Lack of skin-to-skin sensation
• Lack of initial hand-to-mouth soothing
• Enhanced pain from inserting tubes/lines etc.
• Many contrasting colours and patterns
• Bright overstimulating lighting
• Ultraviolet lighting
• Alarms at overstimulating decibels
• The sound of instruments
• Crying of other babies
• Lack of white noise (calming)
• General lack of movement (being carried or rocked by a parent), which is unsettling and unnatural in contrast to the womb
• No protection from gravity in a flexed (foetal) position as they would be in the womb or whilst being swaddled
• Strong-smelling medical and cleaning agents to support the sterile environment (antiseptics, alcohol swabs)
• Lack of sweet flavours and taste of breast milk