NATALIE UDWIN, MSOT, OTR/L - SPEAKER

Nat (Natalie Udwin) is an infant development, airway and reflexive feeding specialist AKA pediatric OT. On IG, most people know them as "Nat The Baby OT". Nat's home base is in Atlanta, GA but they also work virtually with families all over the world. Nat has a B.A. in Studio Art from Whitman College, an M.S. in OT from Milligan College and has been an OT for 12 years. They have specialized in infant development for 7 years now. Nat has a 5 year old son named Ari and enjoys anything in or on water, hiking, traveling, abstract painting and drawing and is definitely happiest outdoors.

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? Nat needed to know. 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 a holistic airway focused practice for children of all ages.