Nutrition Services

Good nutrition is an important part of health for people of all ages, but especially for children, who are growing and need a solid nutritional foundation to reach their developmental milestones. When it comes to determining the best diet for your newborn, infant, child or teen, focus on variety, portion control and nutrition.

Clinical Nutrition at Valley Children’s Hospital

The Clinical Nutrition team at Valley Children’s Hospital consists of highly experienced registered dietitians who provide medical nutrition therapy to our patients, both inpatient and outpatient.

Inpatient Nutrition Services

Our clinical dietitians work closely with pediatric subspecialists in the inpatient setting to develop and implement nutrition plans of care according to age and disease. The Clinical Nutrition team specializes in medical nutrition therapy (MNT) which includes nutrition risk screening, nutrition status assessment, implementation of personalized nutrition care plans and monitoring throughout the child’s stay. Many of our patients assessed during a hospital admission will also see a registered dietitian in our outpatient clinic. Many of our patients have the privilege of being followed by a registered dietitian throughout the course of their disease. 

Services provided by the inpatient clinical nutrition team include:

• Nutrition assessments
• Nutrition education
• Lactation consultation
• Nutrient intake studies
• Nutrition risk screening – nutrition screening
• Development of medical nutrition therapy care plan, implementation and monitoring
• Calorie counts
• Consults
• Charting
• Diet education
• Nutrition consults
• Nutrition support committee involvement
• Recommending and maintaining enteral and parenteral formulary

Outpatient Nutrition Services

The outpatient nutrition clinic focuses on providing nutrition counseling that promotes growth, development and disease prevention. The Nutrition Clinic at Valley Children’s Hospital offers telehealth appointments as well as a virtual healthy eating class in both English and Spanish. Outpatient nutrition services will require a referral from your child’s doctor.

If you are a provider outside of the Valley Children’s Healthcare network, please see the section “Resources & Referral Information for Providers” below for details on referrals and educational resources.

Resources and Referral Information for Providers

Our registered dietitians work closely with providers throughout the Central Valley. Providers who are not part of the Valley Children’s Healthcare network are welcome to utilize our educational resources and refer their patients to our virtual healthy eating class. We are not accepting referrals for non-obesity related conditions at this time. However, you are encouraged to utilize and distribute the educational materials provided below.