Last week I had the privileged of completing a week long rotation in a specialized pediatric hospital. I loved it! My mind reeled at times, wondering just how I (and other intern like me) had never caught a glimpse into the world of pediatric nutrition. Much of our course-work as undergrads was aimed simply at basic equipage of nutrition facts, medical conditions and various resources to ready us for the great wide world of nutrition. Knowing the entirety of the vast realm of nutrition is the unthinkable and impossible, and yet I couldn’t help but complete my pediatric rotation wondering why, oh why no one had ever so much as mentioned a peep as to what a pediatric RD does, the challenges they face and the incredible rewards that sparkle and glimmer through the uncertain and often tragic stories of these precious little ones and their families. Here is what I loved about it:
- The collaborative feel amount the staff members. There is something undeniably special about the personality and character qualities of people (especially healthcare professionals) that love kids. This feeling, along with a welcoming feeling of warmth was pervasive amongst the entire hospital culture.
- The emphasis of nutrition. Ask anyone working in Peds and they will tell you that kids are nothing without their nutrition. The best therapies, medications and interventions will 99.99% of the time go nowhere without proper nutrition. For example, an infant’s stomach grows from the size of a shoot marble on day 1 to golf ball on day 3 and then a large egg by day 7. The what, how often and how much of infant and childhood nutrition is vital to their healing…and the MDs at this hospital knew it. They truly valued the advice and expertise of the RDs.
- The helpful and encouraging actions and words of all the RDs. They offered me handouts and gave me articles at my request. They went over calculations and quizzed me on my answers. They told me about the upcoming “RD Residency” program they will be starting and offered to have me shadow them any time! They were just plain awesome!
- The kids. Regardless of the tubes, the facial deformities, the smells, the alphabet soup of abbreviations listing their medical problems, each of the little ones that my eyes fell on where precious. Sometimes I felt like for just a second, I was seeing these kids as God saw them. They had fuzzy red hair, or chubby cheeks, or they were smiling in their sleep. Beyond the physical uniqueness they had incredible, “unseen” value. Also equally important, was the reality that being each child was parent and a family. Whether it was the teenage mom rocking her baby in the very low birth weight (VLBW) infant ward, the mom of a disabled 14 YO girl with cerebral palsy who sometimes had to carry her around, or the dad of the little girl being monitored for cystic fibrosis…all of them had stories swirling beneath the frothing waves of the clinical or outpatient setting.
This rotation was a wonderful reminder of the precious value of every life. Oh, how we , how I, often constrain worth and value to mankinds’ measuring sticks rather than letting it explode into the vibrant, unthinkably deep thing that God created it to be. ..to see it as it really is… without eyes so tainted by sin. This is a prized lesson I want to carry into each rotation.
I am not sure just what God has for my future, but after this rotation I find that I have a very large spot in my heart for pediatric nutrition! This just might be something I would like to invest long term into…but we will just have to wait and see!
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