Nutrition Interventions for Children with Special Health Care Needs

Chapter 14 - Nutrition Interventions for Failure to Thrive
Assessment Intervention Evaluation/
Outcome
Dietary
Parent/caregiver’s knowledge
of child’s nutritional
needs.
Prioritize nutrition intervention to provide information and
recommendations for the family that are non-threatening.
Determine parents’ knowledge of child’s feeding development
and nutritional needs.
Nutrition Counseling: 17
Parents are able to read
their child’s cues accurately
and provide for their needs
in a consistent nurturing
manner.
Evaluate parents’ perception of child’s intake and daily
patterns vs. child’s experience described in diet recall
and 3-day diet record.
Note parents’ ability to read child’s cues and ease of interactions
during office visit.
Nutrient intake improves.
• Provide unconditional positive regard to establish trust
with the parents
• Convey empathetic understanding to parent’s fears
and frustration by acknowledging the difficulty of the
situation
• Use initial interview and the parent’s perspective on
health and nutrition for the educational starting point.
Point out challenges the child brings to the feeding
situation
• Correlate nutrition education with healthy physiologic
feeding cycles and social development
• Help parents prioritize efforts to maintain healthy
eating habits (meal/snack frequency, limit juice, food/
beverage selection, balance of fluid/solid volume,
variety)
• Move to new concepts when the parent has
experienced success and is confident in their ability to
implement recommendations
• Revert to initial educational information as needed with
setbacks
• Avoid using specific numbers for goal weight gain
and energy intake; speak in terms of working toward
healthy feeding patterns and growth
Note parental affect, communication of fear, frustration,
and/or hopelessness, and ability to sort family issues
and focus on child’s current needs.
Frequency of ad-lib feeding
and drinking is appropriate.
Daily dietary pattern approximates
foods offered
every 2-3 hour interval
about 5-6x/day. Fluid intake
is balanced to provide
nutrient density and allow
for adequate intake of
nutrient dense solids (for
example, 16-24 oz milk or
other nutrient dense fluid
plus solids to meet needs
for catch up growth).
Refer to information gained by other disciplines to prioritize
nutritional education and amount of information
to be provided (typically 1-3 educational points at one
time). 18
158 Nutrition Interventions for Children With Special Health Care Needs
Compliment parent on efforts to try new ways and
implement intervention