Clinical Nutrition

The Department of Clinical Nutrition’s registered dietitians (RDs) provide a wide range of services for patients of all ages, including assessment, developing care plans, monitoring and education. For children with special health care needs, a good nutritional status helps to minimize complications from illness, medical treatments and surgery.

Our RDs have nutritional training and specialized experience with divisions or conditions, such as digestive disorders, diabetes or kidney problems. Their expertise helps provide high-quality care as part of a comprehensive treatment plan.

Nurses, physicians and family members may also request the services of an RD at any time during a child's hospital stay. An RD will discuss concerns or questions about a child's diet, growth or special needs.

Approach 

Nutritional services are incorporated into our patients’ overall treatment plans. RDs provide nutritional assessments, with intervention and counseling as needed.

Services include:

• Calculating caloric daily needs
• Recommending nutrition support
• Developing goals for individuals receiving intravenous nutrition
• Creating individualized nutrition care plans

We partner with medical teams to provide specialized care tailored to your child and their needs. We also treat children for nutritional risk, including:

• Weight for age below the fifth percentile or over the 95th percentile on a standardized growth chart
• Special diets (i.e., food allergy, diabetic, kidney or cardiac restrictions)
• Total parenteral nutrition (TPN), tube feedings or special formula use
• Recent unintentional weight loss
• Difficulty chewing, eating or swallowing