The Behavioral Health Services comprehensive approach to care is provided by a multidisciplinary team – which may include a psychiatrist, developmental-behavioral pediatrician, nurse practitioner, psychologist, clinical social worker, and clinical counselor – to determine the best treatment options for each child and adolescent.

As one of the few programs in the Midwest, Nationwide Children's Hospital’s Inpatient Behavioral Feeding Disorders Program is unique in that it uses the child’s natural sense of hunger along with behavioral principles to improve oral intake in children with feeding disorders. The program uses evidence-based treatment protocols to provide the highest quality of care to children and families, with a primary focus on parent training, and ensuring that mealtime treatment procedures will transfer to the home setting.

The most common patient has either a medical or developmental reason for disordered eating. These conditions can lead to interruption of the development of normal feeding practices in terms of type and texture of foods eaten, self feeding and meal time behavior problems.

Children, under the age of 10 years, who do not consume enough calories to maintain normal growth, children who do not eat orally, children who do not progress beyond soft textured foods and children who have a very limited diet leading to dietary deficiencies, are candidates for this program. The program is based on an inpatient medical unit which allows medical monitoring of the child's medical condition during the early stages of treatment when calorie or fluid intake may be compromised. We receive referrals from all across the United States and Canada.

Evaluations will be offered to determine the level of services that are needed to address the behavioral feeding problems. Patients who are determined to need multi-specialty care will be referred to Children's Interdisciplinary Feeding Evaluation Clinic.