Nutrition Services
Nutrition Services
Listed below are recipes for mixing store-brand formula, providing approximately the number of calories per ounce. These recipes can be used for all formula types. For 20 calories per ounce, use the recipe on the formula package.
The Nutrition Services team at Children’s Mercy provides comprehensive nutrition assessments and individualized care plans for children in our hospitals and clinics. Our focus is on helping children manage their medical conditions, grow well, and develop healthy nutrition and eating habits.
In addition to providing specialized care to children, the Nutrition Services team also hosts nutrition education sessions for Children’s Mercy staff, community members and health care students. Many of our team members are active in nutrition research as well.
Nutrition counseling
Your primary care provider or specialist can refer you for an appointment to see a Registered Dietitian in the Nutrition Clinic. A counseling session in our clinic often includes meal planning, nutrition assessment, growth evaluation and nutrition education.
In addition to the Nutrition Clinic, our Registered Dietitians also partner with the care teams in several different multidisciplinary clinics at Children’s Mercy. These include:
- Allergy/Asthma/Immunology
- Beacon Clinic
- Cardiology
- Down Syndrome
- Eating Disorder Center
- Endocrine/Diabetes
- Feeding
- Gastroenterology/Liver Care
- Hematology/Oncology
- Ketogenic Diet
- Metabolic/Genetic
- Nephrology/Kidney
- Neurology/Epilepsy
- Plastics and Reconstructive Surgery
- Primary Care Clinics
- Pulmonology/Cystic Fibrosis
- Rehabilitation Medicine
- Special Care/NICU Follow-up
- Weight Management Clinic
Nutrition care for children in the hospital
Our Registered Dietitians are an important part of your child’s care team when they are staying at the hospital. Dietitians provide comprehensive nutrition services that are tailored to your child’s individual needs.
Inpatient nutrition services include:
- Screening children to identify nutrition risks.
- Assessing nutrition needs and making recommendations on how to best meet those needs.
- Recommending appropriate feeding plans to meet the nutritional needs of children of all ages.
- Managing the care of children with a feeding tube or who receive parenteral (IV) nutrition.
- Providing nutrition education and dietary instructions for families.
Nutrition Clinic
Common conditions we treat in the Nutrition Clinic include:
Constipation
Food allergies
General nutrition/healthy eating
Poor weight gain/growth and malnutrition \
Tube feeding assessments
Contact us
To schedule an appointment with the Nutrition Clinic, call (816) 234-3700. Please have your insurance information and primary care provider’s contact information with you when you call. Ask your child’s physician to submit a request for consultation to the Nutrition Clinic.
Existing patients care also request, reschedule or cancel an appointment through the patient portal or by calling (816) 234-3700.
Additional contact information
Nutrition Department:
(816) 234-3468
Department Director:
Kristi Thaete, MS, RD, CSP, LD
(816) 983-6727
Office Manager:
Kim Strickland
(816) 234-3989
Interim Medical Director:
Jennifer Colombo, MD
Hours
The Department of Nutrition Services is open from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Nutrition education resources
Helpful links for families
- USDA MyPlate
- Eat Right
- Kids Health
- Food Allergy Research and Education
- Fit-Tastic Program
- Celiac Disease Foundation
- Blended Diets at Children's Mercy (Download as PDF)
Videos
- Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH Diet)
- Enfoques Dieteticos para Detener la Hipertension (DASH Diet - Spanish)
Handouts (PDF)
Information for health care providers
Refer a patient to Nutrition Services
Nutrition resources for providers