Growth and Nutrition (ICAN)

We are part of the Integrated Children’s Additional Needs (ICAN) Service. We provide clinics and home visiting to assess, investigate and manage young children up to seven years old who have significant problems with feeding and eating who have not improved with initial advice. We also provide support with tube weaning.

Who’s it for?

• Children with significant feeding problems despite having first received appropriate advice from a health professional.
• Children being considered for tube-feeding, for reasons other than unsafe swallowing.
• Children who are fed via tubes and need support with weaning and transition to oral feeding.
• Children with sensory feeding problems, aversive eating or neophobia (fear of something new) who are at risk of malnutrition.

Our team

Our team includes community paediatricians, specialist health visitor/ICAN nurse, a community paediatric dietician and a clinical psychologist. Children will initially be seen by one or more members of the team and a one of the nursing team will carry out part of the assessment at home or school.

We also provide support and advice for frontline practitioners via training and case discussion.

Referrals

If a child is already under the care of a paediatrician or multi-disciplinary team, we recommend talking to them before making a referral. In our experience, it is better for families to have their children’s care provided by a single team as far as possible.

Please view the ICAN referrals page.

You can also view the referral criteria.