Children facing feeding challenges can have a variety of conditions with a wide range of symptoms. Symptoms may include failure to thrive or poor rate of weight gain, obesity, restricted dietary patterns, feeding tube dependence, difficulty swallowing and texture intolerance.
These children may have recurrent gagging and vomiting, gastroesophageal
reflux or food allergies that can put them at risk for nutritional deficiencies. Behavioral, developmental and cultural influences on feeding behavior also play a major role for many children. The Feeding Program at Riley at IU Health assesses these issues for each child to ensure that we conduct a holistic assessment.
The Feeding Program at Riley at IU Health was the first of its kind in Indiana. Our experts look at all aspects of nutrition and feeding in children with or at risk for medical, developmental or behavioral problems that affect feeding and growth. Because we have specially trained developmental pediatricians on staff, we can offer a comprehensive evaluation of your child’s feeding issues and develop a personalized care plan that best fits your child’s needs.
An individualized program is developed for each child by a multidisciplinary team. This team may include:
The Feeding Program was awarded a grant from Women for Riley, a supportive organization through the Riley Children’s Foundation. This grant helped fund educational materials and supplies that we provide to families of our patients. These materials help families organize their child’s diet plan, nutrition and other important information that is part of the Feeding Program care plan.
The feeding team performs both outpatient and inpatient feeding evaluations. All evaluations occur on an outpatient basis first. Some patients need more intensive feeding therapy and coordinated assessment that inpatient care provides. Inpatient stays are typically four days, Monday through Thursday.
Our pediatric specialists provide patient- and family-centered care for most related conditions. The links below provide more specific information about some, but not all, of the conditions that we treat.
Learn more about the experienced providers associated with the Feeding Program at Riley at IU Health.
The Feeding Program at Riley at IU Health provides the following forms for parents, healthcare providers and personnel. We have also curated relevant resources from other websites and provided links with brief descriptions of the information that is available.
Consultation Request Form (Riley at IU Health)
This form is for providers who want to make a non-urgent referral to the Feeding Program at Riley at IU Health.
We provide multispecialty care for a number of conditions. Below are links to our related departments.
The Feeding Program works closely with referring providers and other subspecialists at Riley at IU Health to coordinate the care of children who are facing difficulties with feeding. Our intake coordinator gathers all needed materials from the provider prior to the patient’s visit and keeps the provider informed of the patient’s progress in our care.
We are committed to helping train and educate the rising generation of developmental pediatric specialists. The Feeding Program regularly includes residents, medical students and nurse practitioner students in our clinics.
