Community Dietitians: WH
Community Dietitians provide a dietetic assessment and advice for children over 18 months, who have non-complex health needs.
Who can access Nutrition and Dietetic services?
All children over 18 months registered with a Haringey GP and who meet the referral criteria. The Community Dietetic service offer one-to-one dietary counselling sessions and use a patient-centred collaborative approach. The service offers care packages for a range of clinical conditions including:
- obesity
- type 2 diabetes
- hyperlipidaemia
- hypertension
- gastrointestinal disorders
- malnutrition (weight loss/underweight/poor appetite)
- vegetarian and vegan advice
- nutritional deficiencies (anaemia)
- children with fussy/faddy eating
- single food allergy (diagnosed only) and food intolerance.
Inappropriate referrals:
- young babies (<18months)
- refer to Child Development Centre Paediatric Dietitians (CDC) service
- children with an undiagnosed allergy
- children with autism and very restrictive diets
- children with eating disorders
- refer directly to a specialist eating disorder service.
- children with two or more food allergies or intolerances
- refer these cases directly to the paediatric allergy service (see referral form in Downloads)
- children with complex disabilities (often for children who are non orally fed)
Eating Disorders: RFH
The service aims to help young people with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa or atypical variations of these disorders to recover fully in the community.
The service consistently achieves excellent clinical outcomes and satisfaction ratings from our patients and their parents.
A key aim is to try and help young people avoid admissions into eating disorder units. While eating disorder units should always have a place in the treatment options for young people with eating disorders, the service believes that they should be for the minority and only as last resort.
Research suggests that in-patient care for eating disorders offers no advantages over community treatment and has more disadvantages. The vast majority of our patients make full recoveries with RFH in the community.
Eating disorder referrals are accepted from GPs, local CAMHS teams, and other NHS medical professionals.
There isn't a waiting list for new referrals. The service aims to see emergencies the same day and urgent referrals within one week. All other referrals are seen within four to six weeks.
Useful information to help prioritise referrals includes:
- patient's current height and weight
- rate of any weight loss (e.g., 3kg in three weeks)
- current estimated food/calorie intake
- any other physical or mental health concerns
- telephone numbers (to enable the service to arrange urgent appointments).
Referrers do not need to organise blood tests or any other investigations in advance, especially where young people may be rapidly losing weight.
To refer to the Eating Disorders Service please use the Referral Form in Downloads.
Child Development Centre: Paediatric Dietitians (CDC)
Who can access the Child Development Centre: Paediatric Dietitian service?
Referrals will be accepted for children with complex special needs, require enteral feeding or have a life-limiting illness and who:
- reside in Haringey
- are up to 18 years of age (unless in a special school)
- meet one or more of the following criteria;
- enteral feeding requirements
- faltering growth - falling of weight for age through two standard centiles
- nutritional inadequacy - a diagnosis of syndrome/neurodevelopmental disorder or life-limiting illness, including dysphagia complications, which requires oral nutrition support (ONS)
- restrictive diets - referrals for children with autism with very restricted diets will be given an initial assessment. If following an initial assessment, nutritional supplementation is not initiated, they will be discharged.
Referrals will be accepted for infants who do not have complex special needs or do not require enteral feeding who:
- reside in Haringey
- are <18 months old
- meet one or more of the following criteria;
- faltering growth - falling of weight for age through two standard percentiles
- unresolved reflux - reflux silent or otherwise which has not responded to first-line advice and medication.
The service does not accept referrals for children requiring weight-loss management.
HENRY Healthy Families: Right From The Start Programme
The HENRY Healthy Families programme is a group programme for Haringey parents with children under five.
The face-to-face course is usually delivered from children’s centres in Haringey, but sometimes during the Covid-19 pandemic this has been facilitated virtually.
The course runs across eight weeks, for two and a half hours per week. A creche is provided for children accompanying their parents and healthy snacks are included.
The HENRY approach provides a unique and holistic approach of working with families and uses proven behaviour change models. The approach is underpinned by evidence on risk and protective factors for whole-family nutrition, healthy weight and child development.
The ‘HENRY approach’ brings together support for parenting efficacy, family emotional wellbeing and behaviour change with information about nutrition, physical activity, oral health and more.
For more information or if you are interested in referring a child please email:
e: whh-tr.henryreferrals@nhs.net.
HENRY Healthy Families is delivered as part of the Healthy Child Programme and is coordinated within the Haringey Health Visiting service.
Haringey Breastfeeding Network (BfN)
The Haringey BfN provides a peer support service to support Haringey families with feeding their babies and toddlers.
Peer support is delivered across a number of settings in Haringey, including postnatal wards at NMUH, WH and in the community. Virtual support is also available.
You can email for further service info:
e: haringeysupport@breastfeedingnetwork.org.uk
