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
   

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 both in-person and 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 on “Resources & Referral Information for Providers” below for details on referrals and education resources.

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 outpatient nutrition services. Note, we do prioritize referrals sent within the Valley Children’s Healthcare network due to our limited availability. We accept referrals and provide resources for the following conditions:

• Age-appropriate diet education
• Anemia
• Autism
• Eating disorders
• Failure to thrive/poor growth
• Food allergies
• Obesity and related comorbidities (high cholesterol, prediabetes, hypertriglyceridemia) 
• Picky eating
• Sports nutrition