Dietetics & Nutrition Services in Belconnen
Our Dietetic services are delivered through a partnership with Eat n Grow.
Dietetics is a staple of the allied health suite of services. It is a clinical area that focuses on the promotion of health through good food and nutrition. A Dietitian provides guidance about how to appropriately manage dietary concerns and balance nutritional outcomes, often a challenge for many parents.
Key areas of support provided include nutritional assessments, dietary advice, meal time management guidance, and support to access nutritional supplementation if required.
Nutritional therapy may include working with clients and their families to assess their developmental and nutritional requirements, as well as assisting them to manage a variety of medical conditions or disability via the use of a specifically tailored diets, play therapy, or nutritional supplementation.
Food service management may include working with childcare centres and schools to provide staff training, menu assessment and planning, and compliance monitoring of therapeutic diets.
Our Dieticians use evidence-based practice to empower parents and their children to participate in a healthy lifestyle. At Eat Speak Learn we enjoy working with parents to develop strategies to make mealtimes enjoyable and attainable for their families. Play based therapy may also be used to support your nutritional goals.
Dietetics can be a great complimentary service to speech pathology.
- Feeding difficulties may involve impaired oral intake that is not age appropriate and is associated with medical, nutritional, feeding skill, and/or psychosocial dysfunction. It involves challenges with eating and drinking due to sensor challenges, oral motor challenges, environmental impacts and/or swallowing impairments.
- The Dietitian will work with you to understand the child’s diet history and nutritional intakes.
- This service is delivered in conjunction with a Speech Pathologist who will observe and possibly touch your child to see how your child moves their lips, jaw, tongue and whole body, both with food and without food.
- Following an assessment you will receive recommendations on how we can further support your child.
- Learn how to plan and prepare balanced meals for all family members
- Work with picky eaters to combat food avoidance, selective eating and limited food acceptance
- Children with slow or inadequate weight gain and under-nourishment due to feeding difficulties
- Adjust food and fluid textures to suit sensory sensitivities
- Learn how to choose the right foods to optimise health for your child’s condition
- Help implementing a therapeutic diet following surgery or diagnosis
- Identify and manage food intolerances
- Improve Bowel and Gut Health
FAQs about Paediatric Dietetics & Nutrition
- Neurodevelopmental Disorders: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), ADHD, depression and anxiety
- Gastrointestinal disorders including: constipation, irritable bowel syndrome, coeliac Coeliac
- Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome Management
- Heart disease, blood pressure and cholesterol
- Emotional and Sensory Regulation Issues
- Disordered eating patterns, or food refusal and restriction
You can give our friendly team a call or book a consultation with one of our Dietitians to review your child’s NDIS plan to see if their allocated funding can be used for these services. Dietetic services can draw from the following funding areas:
- Capacity Building Early Childhood Interventions Supports (under 7yrs)
- Capacity Building Improved Health and Wellbeing
- Capacity Building Improved Daily Living
- Core Supports – Assistance with Daily Life
Yes. If you’re on our waitlist for another allied health service, or need to be added, you will be prioritised by our team for other services when the next suitable practitioner and appointment time arises.
