As part of the Gertrude’s Garden Children’s Hospital, the Department of Nutrition is dedicated to providing the highest quality patient-focused nutrition care, to advancing the practice of clinical nutrition, and to educating future dietitians and other healthcare providers.

The department is divided in three major areas:

• 1. Inpatient services
• 2. Outpatient services
• 3. Dietetics internship program

Inpatient Services

The Hospital Inpatient Clinical Nutrition Service provides nutritional care and education to all patients and families admitted to the hospital.

Patients admitted to the hospital are screened for nutritional risk as part of the Nursing assessment. Once a patient is identified by the nurse, the dietitian assesses the patient and determines the level of risk and complexity of assessment, including: age; diagnosis/procedure or treatment. The dietitian is especially trained in the assessment and care of the forced fed, metabolically compromised patient. Our nutrition care is integrated with the medical care to ensure expert nutritional interventions for the most complex nutritional deficiencies.

The dietitians attend ward rounds with the house staff. They are assigned patients by physician team or service line to ensure effective communication and continuity of patient care throughout the patient’s hospitalization. Patients are educated on their modified diet prior to discharge. The dietitians educate patients and families in individualized sessions.

Outpatient services

The Hospital offers excellent outpatient medical nutrition therapy for your child’s health needs and individual nutrition counselling therapy for children (and their families) needing dietary modifications for risk reduction and/or management of:

• Anorexia/Bulimia    Lactose intolerance
• Cancer    Liver diseases.
• Complementary feeding    HIV/AIDS
• Congestive heart failure    Underweight
• Drug-nutrient interactions    Overweight & obesity
• Eating disorders    Nutrition supplements
• Enteral nutrition    Gluten intolerance
• Food allergies    Pancreatitis
• Gastrointestinal Disorders:
• inflammatory bowel disease
• diverticulosis/diverticulitis
•  Pre- and post-surgery:
• Bone marrow transplant
• Cardiac transplant
• Gastroplasty
• Kidney transplant
• Thoracic surgery

Gertrude’s Hospital has the nutrition clinic running at the various satellite clinics from 8.30 am to 4:00 pm as follows:

•              Monday : Embakasi
•              Tuesday : Pangani
•              Wednesday : Lavington Othaya
•              Thursday : Donholm
•              Friday : Nairobi West

Our approach is based on the premise that good nutrition is for everyone! Food is a great source of enjoyment, and the nutrition division maintains that this pleasure can prevail even for those faced with special dietary needs. Food is also a great source of health, and learning what to include can be as important as knowing what to avoid.

Dietetic Internship Program

The philosophy of the GGCH Dietetic Internship Program is to provide education opportunities for excellence in dietetic training. Expertly guided by highly qualified dietetics professionals in environments dedicated to excellence in research, healthcare, and education, the program is designed to provide unique opportunities for a variety of experiences in clinical, community, and food service management. The program staff is committed to preparing graduates to become outstanding dietetics professionals. The following objectives guide the internship program:

• 1. To provide the highest quality training in the field of nutrition and dietetics through a strong, interdisciplinary training team
• 2. To enable students to develop skills in dietetic leadership
• 3. To promote the development of dietetic professionals who are able to embrace proven theory, evaluate current research, and communicate effectively to other  health professionals, peers and the lay population.