Family and Child Nutrition

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EatWell Knows about Family Nutrition

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Claire has completed additional training in Paediatric Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Melbourne and has worked with children, families and Child Health Nurses. She has also been actively involved in nutrition promotion programs aimed at children including a program to improve awareness of breastfeeding, a program to increase knowledge about getting child nutrition off to a healthy start and a comprehensive school nutrition promotion program.

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Perhaps most importantly though, Claire is a Mum and knows that getting children to eat what we recommend isn’t always as easy as the text books say. There are many challenges facing parents, especially with varying nutrition needs within the families, and health or behavioural problems which impact on eating behaviour, weight and food choices. On top of that, families are busier than ever, so the nutrition solutions need to be quick, affordable and realistic. We can help your family get on top of any nutrition issues.

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Individual Consultations for Families and Children

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There are several reasons a family might be referred to a Dietitian experienced with child nutrition in the community. Perhaps you want to get your family on a path to healthier eating? Perhaps you want some ideas for budget meals that will meet your families varying nutrition needs. Perhaps there are specific nutrition issues which could include:

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• Poor eating behaviour and food fussiness
• Limited range of foods that the child will eat (this is common in Autism Spectrum Disorders and Sensory Processing Disorder)
• Concern about being underweight or poor growth
• Concern about a child being overweight
• Food allergies and intolerances
• Concern about adequate intake of essential nutrients
• Chronic Diseases
• Constipation
• Iron Deficiency Anaemia

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We can listen to your concerns, professionally assess your child’s nutritional status and set goals for improvements in nutrition and eating behaviour. We can also develop eating plans that will suit the whole family and advise about recipes, snacks, eating out and school lunches. We can also help with some behavioural strategies to encourage your child to develop and maintain healthy lifestyle habits. In some cases, we may recommend a referral to a specialist clinical paediatric dietitian, but this would be discussed with you when you first make contact with us.

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Information about individual consultations is available on the services page. Health fund rebates may be available depending on your level of cover.

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Preventing and Managing Child Obesity

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Child obesity is reaching epidemic proportions in developed countries such as Australia and the US. An estimated 20 to 25% of children and adolescents in Australia are overweight, and a quarter of this group is obese. Obesity presents many problems for children, and takes a toll on their physical and psychological health.

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The weight loss methods that adults use for themselves are typically not recommended for children. Children have special needs because they are still growing and developing.

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Claire can assess your child’s weight and work with your family to make family-cent red changes which will promote a healthier lifestyle and self-esteem in the long term. Some of the issues we can work on together include enjoying physical activities together, preparing healthier family foods, making family centred changes to meal time behaviours and coping with situations such as eating out and relatives.

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Contact Claire to enquire or book any of these services.

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"your trusted source of professional nutrition advice"

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