Pediatric Lipid Clinic

There are many reasons why someone may have abnormal blood lipid levels (e.g., high “bad” LDL cholesterol, high triglycerides) besides being overweight or inactive. These include inheriting a lipid disorder from a parent, having another disease that impacts lipid levels in the blood, or taking certain medicines. The Stanford Medicine Children’s Health Pediatric Lipid Clinic cares for children of all ages with all types of lipid disorders, empowering them to live full, healthy lives by promoting proactive heart health.

You may not know that your child has a lipid disorder because it does not tend to manifest with noticeable symptoms. Your child might feel fine and live an active lifestyle yet still be at risk for a heart problem in early-to-mid-adult life. By providing expert treatment early on and consistently through the years, our comprehensive care team can help prevent complications associated with lipid abnormalities later in life, including early heart attack and stroke.

Why choose Stanford Medicine Children’s Health for lipid disorders:

• Specialized care team. Our Stanford team is staffed by experienced cardiologists and a genetic counselor who specialize in caring for children with cholesterol conditions. We work closely with families to determine an appropriate care plan, ensuring a patient-centered partnership throughout the process. When appropriate, we collaborate with pediatric endocrinologists, other pediatric specialists, and adult lipid specialists.
• Care for the whole family. Often, when a child has a lipid disorder there are other family members who have, or are at a genetic risk of having, abnormal cholesterol levels. In these situations, our clinic screens and cares for other at-risk children in the family and can also recommend that a parent of a child be referred to the adult lipid clinic at Stanford. In some instances, our double-boarded adult and pediatric lipid specialists and our genetic counselor will see parents and children together at the same appointment in a unified family visit. Our proactive treatments often prove to deliver exceptional outcomes for the whole family.
• Identify genetic causes within families. We’re pleased to have a dedicated cardiovascular genetic counselor who specializes in piecing together your family’s lipid story, providing education on the genetics of lipid conditions, and coordinating cutting-edge genetic testing when appropriate. If a genetic cause of a patient’s lipid condition is identified, we can then coordinate genetic testing, in partnership with our broader Pediatric Inherited Cardiovascular Disorders program, to determine who else in the family is at risk.
• Treatment across the lifespan. When children with lipid disorders become independent young adults, it’s vital that they understand the importance of heart health and continue following up with a care provider. We seamlessly transition teens to adult care at our adult lipid clinic at Stanford where they may see the same cardiologist that they've seen in our pediatric lipid clinic to ensure the best patient outcomes throughout their lifetime.