Children with Special Health Care Needs

Nutrition for Children

Children with special health care needs are those who have or are at increased risk for a chronic physical, developmental, behavioral, or emotional condition and who also require health and related services of a type or amount beyond that required by children generally. There is now a broad recognition that the quality of life for children and youth with special health care needs is best if they have access to comprehensive, family-centered, culturally competent, coordinated, and fully inclusive service systems at the community level. Visit the Maternal and Child Health Library website for links to information related to children with special health care needs. For information that will help provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services, visit the website of the Early Childhood Research Institute.

A study conducted by The Office of Children with Special Health Care Needs in Washington State and funded in part by the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration, Department of Health and Human Services, found that "an investment in professional time with multiple family/child contacts can achieve improvements in nutrition and feeding problems and result in savings in overall health care expenditures." The full report entitled Cost Considerations: The Benefits of Nutrition Services for a Case Series of Children with Special Health Care Needs in Washington State can be viewed and downloaded. From this same website, the downloadable report Nutrition Interventions for CSHCN, February 2004, estimates that 60% of children with special health care needs have nutrition issues, but that not all children with nutrition problems need the same level of service. A chapter on accommodating special dietary needs in the school system is included in the report.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services administers programs and services for adults and families with children under 21 who have serious or chronic medical conditions. To find out about services available in Missouri for children with special health care needs, visit the Special Health Care Needs website.

Registered dietitians involved in providing services for children with special health care needs, and other interested parties who often also have special dietary considerations, can begin a search for information at the American Dietetics Association website. Also visit the Internet guide with websites for parents of children with special health care needs.