FAQ

A nutritionist may know a lot about nutrition and advises their clients about the health properties of food and general nutrition.  In the State of Illinois, nutritionists are not permitted to diagnose or manage the symptoms of health problems.

Registered dietitians (RD) or registered dietitian nutritionists (RDN), however, are required to have a degree in the nutrition field and build on that foundation of knowledge by meeting a rigorous set of criteria determined by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, including supervised practice and a board examination.  An RD or RDN (the credentials are interchangeable) can diagnosis nutrition issues and counsel patients on nutrient needs as well as advise how to modify diet to maintain growth and be healthy.  Both are certified and licensed to practice in the State of Illinois.

A feeding therapist focuses on oral-motor skills to help children overcome challenges with food due to medical, sensory or behavioral reasons.  Feeding therapists are often occupational or speech and language pathologists who are specially trained in the area of feeding disorders.

Some of our patients benefit from the support of both a Feed to Succeed registered dietitian and a feeding therapist.  While Feed to Succeed does not have a feeding therapist on staff, we can make recommendations if your child would benefit from seeing one.

Once we speak with you about your child, we will determine the best dietitian to work with your family.  All of our RDs/RDNs have experience working with children of all ages as well as diagnosing and treating a broad spectrum of nutritional issues.

We work closely with other health care professionals to share knowledge and expertise to serve you better. We partner with the Illinois Early Intervention Program and pediatric practices throughout the Northshore to achieve long-term solutions to specific health and nutrition challenges.

We treat patients from birth through 20 years of age.  In certain circumstances when a childhood diagnosis persists into adulthood, we may continue to work with a client beyond age 20.

With 60-combined years of clinical expertise and the successful treatment of more than 10,000 patients since we started our practice in 2008, Feed to Succeed’s registered dietitians and registered dietitian nutritionists have expertise in treating following childhood nutrition issues:

An assessment visit typically lasts about 60 minutes to allow an RD/RDN to take your child’s growth measurements and review a 3- to 4-day food record. For patients who are unable to bring a food record, we will spend some time during the initial assessment obtaining a 24-hour food recall.

Time is also spent asking questions about your child’s medical, social and emotional history.  We listen carefully to your answers so we can determine the optimal plan of care for your child/family. We’ll assist you with goal setting and provide recommendations and educational support so your family can implement our care plan.

Occasionally, additional time may be needed to fully address the needs of the child.

Subsequent follow up visits are booked for 30 minutes and include checking your child’s growth measurements, obtaining any medically relevant updates, assessing trends from the previous visit and discussing our previously established goals, including successes and barriers. Goals and strategies are adjusted as needed.

The frequency of visits for each patient depends on the goals established at the initial assessment. Some patients only need annual appointments while others may need to be seen multiple times a month.  Follow up visits are typically recommended every 1-3 months after the assessment but may be more or less frequent depending on the needs of the child/family.

A primary caregiver – typically a parent – is required to attend visits for children under the age of 14 years old. For older teens, a parent is required to attend part of the initial visit, and then may choose to grant permission for the teen to be seen without parental guidance if appropriate.

We are not able to provide individualized recommendations and care without seeing the individual patient, as a nutrition assessment includes a nutrition-focused physical exam, which relies upon measurements and visual assessment to accurately determine personalized nutritional needs.

We typically meet with the parent and child together for a portion of the visit. Part of the social-emotional assessment includes observation of the parent-child relationship. In some cases, particularly with tweens and teens, we have seen better results meeting privately with the parent and privately with the child during part of the visit. However, this is always presented as a choice to the parent and child. We will support the decision you make.

Because Early Intervention recognizes the treatment of a child within their natural environment, appointments for the Illinois Early Intervention Program can take place in a family home if the family lives within a reasonable distance from their provider. For families that live further away, EI nutrition services can easily be provided by telehealth with the support of periodic child weight and height measurements provided by parents

We are able to offer telemedicine to remote patients. Many insurance companies do cover nutrition by telehealth, but not all insurance covers nutrition by telehealth. Make sure to contact your company about what your personal policy covers for MNT codes 97802 and 97803.

In order to help us provide you and other clients with the highest level of service, we request that you provide 24-hour notice for appointment changes and cancellations. You will be charged the fee of the visit if appointments are missed or cancelled with less than 24-hour notice.

For Early Intervention appointments cancelled, changed or missed with less than 24-hour notice, your dietitian will determine whether or not to continue to keep your child on their schedule and whether or not there is room for a make-up visit.

We reserve the right to discontinue services to families that are chronically unable to keep scheduled appointments.

Feed to Succeed charges what is usual and customary to our region as determined by both insurance carriers and other providers in our area. All visits are billed in 15-minute increments, at $80 per 15 minutes.

We are not currently offering home visits for families outside of the CFC 6 Early Intervention area.

Feed to Succeed cannot guarantee coverage of services for Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) procedure codes 97802, 97803, 97804. We are in-network with many insurance carriers however, each individual plan may have different coverage elections.

We encourage you to contact your insurance carrier prior to your visit to determine your individual benefits. Claims that are denied become 100% patient responsibility and are eligible for a prompt-payment discount if paid within 30 days.

Patients are responsible for deductibles, co-pays and co-insurances as defined by their individual plan.

While weight/BMI may be the reason your child is referred to us, we prefer to focus on overall health and feeding our bodies appropriately rather than focusing on a number on the scale. With healthy, well-balanced and portion-controlled diets, weight will stabilize to the desired range naturally over time. When this is not the case, we are sensitive to the stigmatism associated with body-image and actively strive to avoid labeling, and negative food or body language.

We discuss and educate our patients on the importance of a well-balanced diet, which includes vegetables. We help develop strategies and goals to encourage your child to eat foods they’d prefer to avoid.

If there are non-behavioral sensory/textural issues or feeding delays related to certain types of food, we will refer your child for an evaluation with a trained feeding therapist (an occupational therapist (OT) or a speech language pathologist (SLP)).

We do not physically introduce foods during your appointment with the dietitian, as that is the role of a feeding therapist (OT, SLP).

We are happy to provide nutrition education in regard to a healthy balanced diet. We are here to help you develop strategies and goals to encourage healthy eating in your home. However, children are in the process of developing self-regulation and self-control, and the success of their progress is directly related to what the family allows and teaches. We do not expect children under the age of 13 years old to be intrinsically motivated without the support of their family and community to make healthy choices.