How can a Paediatric Dietitian help?

Hi, I’m Jo Lenz and I’m a pediatric or children’s dietician, and I’m going to be sharing my top tips to help with any issues you may be facing with your baby or your child’s eating. 

So a really common question is, does my child actually need to see a children’s dietician and how can you help? So when I get emails asking for my help, often they start with, how can you help? I’m not sure if I’ve come to the right place.

What I would say is if you have any issues around eating your child’s eating habits, or then a dietician is a really good first point of call because we are really the experts and very skilled in being able to assess your child’s growth and what’s really going on in terms of their eating. So even if we feel that you need signposting to somewhere, somewhere else, such as a pediatrician or a feeding clinic, then definitely having an assessment from a pediatric dietician initially would be recommended. 

So I can see families for a number of different reasons. Slightly different to working in a hospital where you see some children who are really unwell. Generally in my one-to-one at private clinics, I will see children for a number of reasons. So maybe if your child is underweight and you’re concerned about that, and if there are fussy eater, if you need some support with weaning or food allergies, so plant-based diets as well. This is you know just having a check that everything that you’re giving the child provides them with the best nutrition. So it’s really varied and I think we’re always a good first point of call.