Integrative Medicine Programs to Treating GI Disorders

Many different factors can cause nutritional issues and digestive disorders in children, sometimes making them difficult to diagnose or treat. If unaddressed, these conditions can limit nutritional intake, impact other systems in the body and possibly affect development as a result.

At University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's, our pediatric gastroenterology specialists take an integrative approach to care in order to accurately diagnose and treat digestive disorders in children.

Collaborative Care across Multiple Specialties

Eating and digestive problems can be caused by behavioral, anatomical or other underlying issues. Our collaborative, multi-disciplinary approach to care combines many different disciplines and specialties to create a more comprehensive view of the patient, enabling us to identify symptoms and diagnose and treat patients more accurately.

In addition, we have established several multidisciplinary clinics, such as the Aerodigestive Clinic, that specialize in conditions that have a multisystem impact to help patients have access to all specialties needed in one convenient location.

Complementary Health Care Provides Alternative Therapies

Current therapies for many digestive disorders, including colon cancer and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) for example, aren't always effective over time. Children can become resistant to these therapies or experience a buildup of toxins that affect healthy cells.

Through several studies, our specialists have found incorporating complementary care strategies such as traditional Chinese medications can be a natural, non-toxic way to effectively treat patients.

We're continuing to study how these medications, in addition to other forms of complementary care, best affect care and the optimal ways to incorporate them into treatment.