S8:E72 - Natalie Udwin: Getting to the Root Cause with Occupational Therapy

My guest today is Occupational Therapist, Natalie "Nat" Udwin. Nat is an infant development, airway and reflexive feeding specialist. Most people know them on Instagram as "Nat The Baby OT".
Nat has a B.A. in Studio Art from Whitman College and a M.S. in Occupational Therapy from Milligan College and has been an OT for 12 years. They have specialized in infant development for 7 years now.
Sometime around 2015, Nat's eyes were opened to the world of reflex integration, which completely transformed their practice. Finally, Nat was seeing skills were sticking and carrying over to other aspects of daily life that just weren't happening before for their patients. It was the "foundational" approach to therapy that Nat had been trying to figure out for years.
After a couple of years of learning to integrate or inhibit retained reflexes, Nat began to ask WHY. Why were all of these kids retaining these reflexes from infancy into childhood? What was happening developmentally to change their trajectory?
So, Nat dove headfirst into infant development courses. They quickly learned about the importance of human connection and emotional regulation in early infancy, as well as the developmental importance of strong breathing and oral motor skills to support a lifetime of healthy growth. It was now all starting to make sense.
The next step was to start working with infants, and to put all of this new knowledge to the test. Nat, alongside some incredible mentors and colleagues, has spent the past 7 years mastering their understanding of infant development to not only become an infant development specialist, but to create what is now the foundation of Áha OT - a holistic airway focused approach to therapy - for children of all ages.
You can find out more about Nat at ahaotcollab.podia.com or on Instagram at nat_thebabyot.
Show Notes:
+The First 1,000 Days: A Crucial Time for Mothers and Children, by Roger Thurow
+The TummyTime! Method with Michelle Emanuel
+Campfire Chats with Nat
** Visit childrensairwayfirst.org/blogs for access to links and more information on this topic **
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