Assignment:
Planning Nutrition Therapy for a Complex Pediatric
Unit outcomes addressed in this Assignment:
• List the major factors that influence the recovery of a sick child.
• Explain three methods of improving nutrient intake in a pediatric patient with a chronic disease.
Course outcomes addressed in this Assignment:
NS335-5: Design a realistic and therapeutic meal plan for a patient with a severe food allergy or disease that prohibits certain types of foods or nutrients.
GEL-8.03: Apply Critical thinking to formulate a logical solution to a problem.
Instructions:
Imagine that you are a nutrition assistant working at a pediatric rehabilitation center. This rehabilitation center provides care for pediatric patients who are recovering from recent hospitalizations. This facility is considered to be the bridge between critical care type hospitals and home care.
The supervising dietitian informed you that a new patient was admitted overnight from the nearby hospital and is now recovering from a skin graft surgery due to a severe pressure ulcer (bed sore). Imagine that you are asked to review the patient's chart notes and provide a nutrition assessment summary along with recommendations for a therapeutic diet or nutrition support (i.e. either enteral or parenteral nutrition with or without an oral diet).
Questions to address:
1. Why was Cindy at risk for a pressure ulcer? What were some of the contributing factors, and why?
2. What are the symptoms of an egg allergy? Why do you think her allergy was not ever life threatening when she was receiving the nightly tube feedings at home?
3. Take into consideration her multiple medical conditions of cerebral palsy, egg allergy, and recent pressure ulcer surgery, and calculate her estimated calorie needs and protein needs.
4. Recommend an appropriate tube feeding formula brand name or type that has no albumin from egg protein (for the days that she does not have adequate oral intake of her meals).
5. Appendix: Design a full-day meal plan for Cindy that includes pureed/soft foods. This diet needs to fully address her CP-related chewing/swallowing challenges. Be sure to consider her protein needs for wound healing promotion and future prevention, but without foods containing eggs or egg by-products. Oral protein drink supplements can be considered. Include the total calories, carbohydrates, fats, protein, and any micronutrients that are important in this case.
Requirements: Please include the answers to questions 1-4 in an essay of at least 3 pages in length. Incorporate at least three references in APA style within the essay. Part 5/Appendix should be formatted as a well-organized 2-day sample meal plan with a detailed description of the food items, serving sizes, and the daily calorie/nutrient totals. The meal plan is in addition to the 3 pages for questions 1-4.