We provide nutrition services on both an outpatient and inpatient basis, depending on our patients’ needs.
What is a Registered Dietitian (RD)?
Registered dietitians are nutrition experts who have completed their bachelor’s degree followed by an internship and nutrition exam. Many of our dietitians have specialty certifications in areas such as pediatrics, critical care, diabetes, eating disorders and lactation.
Outpatient Nutrition Counseling
Our pediatric Registered Dietitians (RDs) are experts in nutrition and provide medical nutrition therapy for infants to young adults. The goal is to optimize nutrition, growth and overall health. Our pediatric RDs cater the nutrition consultation to the individual & family – which often includes a nutrition and growth assessment, meal planning and child/family nutrition education.
One-on-one nutrition counseling with a pediatric RD is available with a physician’s referral. Common reasons for a referral include:
- weight issues
- malnutrition
- feeding difficulties
- autism
- food intolerances and allergies
- tube feeding
- special diets
- nutrition education
Families should check with their child’s insurance provider to determine insurance benefits.
Along with one-on-one outpatient nutrition services, our RDs provide nutrition services as part of a team center care (TCC) approach in many CHOC clinics and programs.
Learn more about how to prepare for an outpatient registered dietitian visit.
Inpatient Nutrition Services
Our dietitians are an important part of a child’s care team while he or she is staying with us in the hospital. We provide comprehensive nutrition services for patients of all ages according to medical need. These services include:
- Screening all patients for nutritional risks based on diagnosis, nutrition history and growth trend
- Assessing nutritional needs and making recommendations on how to meet them which may include oral diet, parenteral (IV nutrition), or enteral (tube feeding)
- Providing nutrition education to patients and families
Healthy Lifestyle Classes
Nutrition, physical activity and behavior choices are very important when it comes to a child’s health. At CHOC, we work closely with children and their families to develop healthy lifestyles and prevent serious conditions such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Learn more about our nutrition and lifestyle classes.
