Intestinal Rehabilitation and Nutrition Support

Healing children with digestive disease through innovation

At Stanford Medicine Children’s Health’s reenergized Intestinal Rehabilitation and Nutrition Support program, we go beyond supporting your child’s nutritional requirements. We transform lives with innovative, research-informed care that moves children toward nutritional freedom, allowing them to fully engage in life and thrive. By addressing all aspects of your child’s needs—physical, developmental, behavioral, and social—we empower your child to achieve nutritional health and well-being.

We understand learning that your child has nutritional challenges can be stressful. As one of a few pediatric intestinal rehabilitation programs on the West Coast, we are here to walk beside you to care for your child and to support you on this journey.

Program highlights

• We are a specialized, multidisciplinary care center for children with complex nutritional conditions, including short bowel syndrome, gastroschisis, necrotizing enterocolitis, chronic dysmotility, intestinal pseudo-obstruction, PediCODEs, and other conditions that affect the intestines.
• As a children’s hospital that’s part of an academic campus, we apply research to clinical care, meaning that your child has access to cutting-edge care options, some only provided here at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health. For example, we are exploring ways to make intestines longer, which could improve nutrient absorption and end reliance on total parenteral nutrition (TPN).
• For pediatric patients with progressive intestinal failure, we are one of only three programs on the West Coast to provide highly advanced intestinal transplants.
• By partnering with our on-site Children’s Home Pharmacy, we provide fully customized nutrition for your child from our compounding lab, as one of just four university-affiliated home health pharmacies on the West Coast.
• We engage in coordinated, holistic care expressly for your child by collaborating with experts across the Stanford campus.

Our goals for your child

• Maximize your child’s development, function, and well-being with multidisciplinary, individualized care.
• Achieve a normal physical exam and stable metabolism for optimal nutrient absorption.
• Prevent or improve surgical outcomes and return lost function.
• Free your child from total parenteral nutrition (TPN) and promote oral feeding, thereby achieving intestinal adaptation.
• Enable your child to live a full life despite TPN, when it is required.
• Optimize the health of all your child’s organs, not just gastrointestinal.
• Empower you to care for your child at home with accessible, constant support.