Nutrition & Dietetics

Food provides energy for our daily activities and nutrients for health and general well-being. At different stages of our lives (eg. infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, pregnancy and during periods of illness), our nutrient requirements differ and we need to modify our food intake according to our nutritional needs.

We believe that eating should be enjoyable at all stages of life and even during times of illness, as food and eating are very much part of our culture and daily routine.

Our dietitians are able to:

• Assess your nutritional intake and requirements
• Plan and design therapeutic diet to suit your medical condition
• Provide personalised dietary counseling

Our Range of Services

Some nutrition and dietetics services that we provide:

Women's Services:

• Preconception, antenatal and postnatal nutrition
• Dietary management of gestational diabetes
• Weight management for underweight and overweight women
• Diet therapy for specific medical conditions eg. diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidaemia, renal disease, gout and complications related to women’s cancer

Paediatric Services:

• Nutrition support for very low birth weight infants
• Nutrition for toddlers and growing children
• Weight management for underweight and overweight children
• Dietary management of food allergies
• Dietary management of eating disorders
• Nutrition support for surgery and cancer, including support for home enteral feeding
• Sports nutrition for school athletes
• Diet therapy for specific medical conditions including gastrointestinal, liver and renal diseases, diabetes, inborn errors of metabolism and epilepsy

We also offer nutrition consultancy services to external organisations eg. nutrition talks, menu development or analysis.

Education and Research

Our dietitians are actively involved in providing nutrition education for:

• Hospital staff through the Hospital Healthy Lifestyle Committee activities
• Parents and patients through support group activities
• The public through public forums, community talks and contributions to the mass media

We are also committed in providing clinical dietetics training for both qualified and aspiring dietitians. Clinical and observational attachments are available for students and healthcare professionals (more information is available on our KKH website).

For our list of education programmes, click here.

How to obtain a referral to the dietitian?

• If you or your child is seeing a KKH doctor, you may request a referral to the dietitian from your doctor.
• After referral is made by the doctor and appointment is arranged, you will receive an SMS notification on the scheduled appointment.
• For rescheduling of appointment, you may use the HealthBuddy app or contact our Central Appointments via the following:
  
  +65 6294 4050
  +65 6692 2988 (Fax)
  Online Form
  Email
  

What to Expect During a Dietetics Consultation Session?

Upon registration, your/your child’s height and weight measurements will be taken by a clinic assistant before the consultation.

During the first consultation, which generally takes about 45minutes, a Dietitian will collect information from you/ the parents or caregivers, including the history of presenting concern(s), usual dietary intake and pattern to determine the nutritional problems. You may prepare for the consultation by bringing along a food diary, which will provide a detailed picture of your/your child’s dietary intake. The Dietitian may do one or more of the following:

• Explain on the diet-disease link and importance of diet in the management of your/your child’s medical condition;
• Advise on the appropriate dietary modifications according to your/your child’s medical condition and nutritional needs;
• Counsel you/your child on the need to make dietary changes and provide strategies to implement the changes;
• Provide relevant patient education materials, meal plan or feeding schedule;
• Discuss need and recommended timeframe for review.

During the follow-up consultation(s), which generally takes about 20 minutes, the Dietitian will conduct a brief review of your/your child’s diet based on the dietary interventions recommended previously. Further dietary advice will be discussed accordingly to the arising concerns and nutritional needs.

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