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Nutrition and Feeding
People who have disabilities and complex conditions can experience challenges with nutrition (maintaining adequate nourishment) and feeding (the act of eating and swallowing). At Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare, we offer a comprehensive team approach to improving overall health, nutrition and mealtime experiences.
Gillette’s core feeding team includes registered dietitians, speech and language pathologists, and occupational therapists. We refer patients to other Gillette specialists, when needed, to help maintain proper nutrition and support health. Our team approach ensures comprehensive care for every patient.
Why Choose Gillette?
- Our feeding team uses a variety of treatment approaches—including the sequential-oral-sensory (SOS) approach, Beckman oral-motor therapy, and food chaining—based on each patient’s needs.
- We offer support and expertise to ensure proper nutrition and promote health, whether a patient eats by mouth, uses a feeding tube, or employs a combination of approaches.
- Our experts collaborate with one another and with community providers to provide comprehensive care.
- We offer hospital and clinic facilities designed for your needs.
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We believe that people who have disabilities deserve a lifetime of excellent health care—from birth through adulthood.
Our Team
Our team has extensive experience working with children, teens and adults who have disabilities and complex conditions that began during childhood. A patient’s core nutrition and feeding team most often includes specialists in:
When needed, we might refer patients to specialists in:
- Ear, nose and throat (ENT or otolaryngology)
- Gastroenterology
- Medical genetics and genetic counseling
- Neurology
- Pediatrics and general medicine (for pediatricians and nurse practitioners who specialize in height and growth concerns)
- Psychology
- Radiology and imaging
To search for providers, visit Our Care Team.
Conditions We Treat
Our nutrition services and feeding clinics are designed for patients who have complex medical conditions and injuries. Many of the patients we see have a variety of challenges that affect their nutritional status and ability to eat.
For example, we often see patients who:
- Experience problems tolerating the sensory input of food (oral aversion)
- Follow specialized diets, such as the ketogenic diet or low glycemic index diet, to treat epilepsy and seizures
- Have conditions that affect appetite, such as Prader-Willi syndrome
- Have difficulty swallowing (dysphagia)
- Have motor conditions that affect the ability to eat independently, including the ability to sit up or coordinate their hands during eating or drinking
- Take medications that pose nutrition challenges
- Use feeding tubes
Many conditions can lead to challenges with nutrition and feeding. Some that we see most often include:
- Autism spectrum disorders
- Being overweight or obese
- Being underweight or having insufficient growth
- Brain injury and related neurotrauma
- Cerebral palsy
- Chronic wounds (wounds that won’t heal)
- Conditions that affect bone health (or a history of taking medications that affect bone health)
- Conditions that result in the need for a feeding tube
- Developmental delays
- Epilepsy and seizures
- Prader-Willi syndrome
- Prematurity
For more information about the complex conditions we treat at Gillette, search Conditions and Care.
Tests and Treatments We Offer
Our specialists are committed to using the latest treatments, tests and techniques to support the nutritional needs of patients who have a wide variety of conditions.
Feeding Evaluations and Therapy
During feeding evaluations, a Gillette team assesses the child and his or her skills related to feeding. For example, some children have difficulty chewing or swallowing, aversions to certain food textures, and anxiety during mealtimes.
We evaluate many factors, including the patient’s anatomy, behavior, diet and level of independence with feeding. In some cases, we recommend a video fluoroscopy (swallowing) study—a type of full motion X-ray that helps determine whether food and liquid moves safely from the mouth to the esophagus.
After a feeding evaluation, we might recommend feeding therapy sessions at Gillette. We often work with families to develop a home feeding program. We also might recommend better positioning to help a child eat and drink.
Additional Nutrition and Feeding Services
In addition to feeding evaluations and therapy, we provide the following services:
- Management of nutrition for patients who have feeding tubes
- Initiation and management of the ketogenic diet and low glycemic index diet to alleviate epilepsy and seizures
- Radiology and imaging tests, including upper gastrointestinal X-rays, gastric emptying tests and video fluoroscopy (swallowing) studies
- Neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES)
For more information about the tests and treatments we offer at Gillette, search Conditions and Care.
Preparing for a Feeding Evaluation
Before we can schedule an interdisciplinary feeding evaluation, we must receive an order from a Gillette or community physician. The order must specify the need for a interdisciplinary feeding evaluation or for an evaluation by a speech and language pathologist, an occupational therapist and a dietitian.
Once we receive an order, we contact families to schedule an evaluation. Both before and after a feeding evaluation, our team communicates extensively with your referring physician to ensure coordinated care.
Locations of Service
Gillette Lifetime Specialty Healthcare St. Paul - Phalen Clinic (for Older Teens and Adults)
651-636-9443 or 800-578-4266 (toll free)
Learn More »Services vary by location. For all of our locations, visit Directions and Locations.
