DIETETICS AND NUTRITION CLINIC
About Our Nutrition Service
Paeds Plus Dietitians support babies, children and adolescents throughout all stages of growth and development. Our experienced dietitians support families with general nutritional advice through to managing more complex dietary issues. Paeds Plus is committed to helping children and their families achieve healthy nutritional habits to support growth, and development as well as improving Paediatric conditions through dietary treatment plans.
Our Dietitians work collaboratively with our multidisciplinary team in the management of patients with specific medical conditions. These include unsettled babies, feeding difficulties, growth faltering, food allergies and intolerances, chronic abdominal pain/digestive problems, constipation, poor weight gain, overweight/obesity, nutritional imbalances and more.
Private Dietetic consultation is also available for children with nutritional concerns only. GP referrals aren’t required to book in a consult and receive care from our Dietitians.
How We Can Help You
Our areas of interest and speciality Nutrition clinics include...
Unsettled Babies and
Infant Nutrition
Weight Management
Food Allergies &
Food Intolerances
Fussy Eating
Gastrointestinal Concerns
& Disorders
Iron Deficiency
Constipation
Tailored Meal Plans
Food Prep & Recipe Advice
Unsettled Babies and Infant Nutrition
Many parents worry about whether their child is growing to their full potential and nutrition is the main driver of growth in children under two years of age.
Whether breastfeeding, bottle-fed, transitioning to solids or on family meals, our dietitan provides non-judgemental advice and supports parents in confidently providing optimal nutrition for their child to establish a healthy growth curve and promote settled behaviour.
Our Dietitian also works collaboratively with our Paediatricians, supporting the care of babies seen in our Unsettled Babies medical clinic.
Food Allergies and Intolerances
Once a diagnosis of food allergy, food intolerance or food hypersensitivity is established, strict elimination of the offending dietary culprit is the only treatment available. Cooking and shopping for a child with food allergies or intolerance can feel overwhelming.
Our dietitan ensures that parents are armed with the knowledge and skills they need to manage an elimination diet while still providing a nutritionally adequate intake. Tailored dietary plans including allergen reintroduction may also be completed depending on the extent of diagnosed allergy or intolerances.
Gastrointestinal Concerns/Disorders
Gastrointestinal discomfort can be very distressing for kids, and for their parents, but how can you tell if a child’s bowel movements are “normal”? We recognise that when it comes to bowels it can be complex as there is a lot of variation in what is “normal” in children.
Our dietitan works closely with our paediatricians to ensure a comprehensive approach to issues such as chronic abdominal pain, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome and coeliac disease. A thorough bowel, toileting and diet history is used to tailor our nutrition interventions to suit each individual child and their family.
Fussy Eating
Fussy eating is a common source of stress and frustration to many parents. While stages of fussy eating are common in children, it can be detrimental to growth and overall health if it continues long term.
Our dietitan supports parents in developing child friendly meals, managing meal time behaviours and developing positive eating pattern while ensuring that nutritional needs are met.
Weight Management
Our dietitian uses a family-based approach to have meaningful and positive conversations in order to work together to help achieve a healthy body weight for her clients.
The dietitian focuses not only on dietary changes to help children “grow into” their weight or achieve catch up growth but also on what kind of healthy lifestyle habits a child is developing as it is this kind of lifestyle that will help them reach their highest health potential.
Iron Deficiency
Iron deficiency in children is a common problem. It can occur at many levels, from a mild deficiency all the way to iron deficiency anaemia — a condition in which blood doesn't have enough healthy red blood cells. Untreated iron deficiency can affect a child's growth and development.
Our dietitan works with families to advise and develop an age-appropriate dietary treatment plan to help prevent and correct iron deficiencies including whole food sources and supplementation advice.
What to Expect During a Dietetic Consultation
Your first appointment may take up to one hour to gain a thorough understanding of your child’s nutrition and feeding patterns. Depending on your child’s individual needs and concerns, a comprehensive nutritional assessment will be performed.
The paediatric dietitian will assess your child’s growth and development, medical and feeding history, dietary intake, mealtime behaviours and food preferences. If your child has specific medical conditions additional diagnostic tests may be reviewed or requested (blood tests, allergy tests, imaging etc.)
Based on this information, the paediatric dietitian will work with you to develop goals and strategies for supporting your child’s nutrition and eating behaviour. Our paediatric dietitian will work collaboratively with our multidisciplinary team developing a treatment plan for patients with specific medical conditions. Subsequent appointments will monitor your child’s progress with support, guidance and fine-tuning of the nutrition plan that has been developed for your child.
Our dietitian will support your child and family with practical advice, education and nutritional information. This may include developing tailored meal plan that considers your child’s growth and nutritional requirements, food preferences and medical needs. Further support may include feeding regimes, behaviour strategies, meal ideas and recipes, or supplement recommendations to help you support your child’s nutrition and feeding goals.
Booking in Appointments
If you feel your child may benefit from our Nutritional clinic, we would love to help you.
No GP referrals are needed for an appointment with our Paediatric Dietitian.
To request an appointment, refer to our website and click on the referral/appointment link.
Our Dietitian - Amalia Bestry
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Amalia is an Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD) with extensive experience as a clinical dietitian, with a focus on paediatric dietetics for the past 5 years. .
Amalia works closely with our Paediatricians supporting the care of our patients, offering a variety of specialised Nutrition clinics.
Private Dietetic consultation is also available for children with nutritional concerns only. GP referrals aren’t required to book in a consult and receive care.