Everyone wants their child to be healthy, happy and living life at full-speed. However, for many Lewis County children, health challenges put the brakes on the activities of childhood. These challenges that can often be addressed through modifications and alterations in lifestyle including a child’s nutrition.
Parents living in Lewis County are often faced with long drives, steep fees and extensive wait times to access nutritional specialists who can address their child’s specific needs. But not patients of Northwest Pediatric Center. For over 20 years, the group has been helping to keep kids and families healthy and part of that mission is offering sought after specialty services in their centrally located Centralia clinics. One of these specialties, available on-site, full-time is the services of Heather Powell, the group’s staff dietician.
Powell grew up in neighboring Pacific County, a resident of South Bend. She attended Central Washington University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Food Science and Nutrition. She deepened her knowledge with a dietetic internship in clinics and hospitals throughout the region. Her advanced training earned her the title of Registered Dietician and she took her expertise on the road, moving to Las Vegas where she worked in a critical care setting in a regional hospital for two and a half years.
Powell’s experience in the hospital was fast-paced and intense and she learned a great deal about nutritional needs of the very ill as well as managing a wide range of ages and conditions. However, she missed her family in Washington and sought a position that would allow her to create lasting, longer and deeper relationships with patients.
Adding Powell to Northwest Pediatric Center’s growing team of specialists has been a great fit for both the clinic’s practitioners and patients. “Heather works with all our doctors on a daily basis as well as with Dr. Abdullah, our Pediatric Gastroenterology specialist who visits the clinic every third Friday. He and his naturopath see between 45 and 60 patients that day and Powell typically consults with at least 15 to 20 of them,” shares Lisa McKay, manager for the busy four-location practice.
What does Powell help patients with? It’s easier to ask what she can’t help. “I see patients with so many different conditions. I help them define what the nutritional issues might be and we make a plan to work through them together,” she says. Typical patient issues include underweight newborns with feeding or formula issues, eating disorders, food allergies, texture issues in children on the autism spectrum, managing a vegan diet in a child, celiac disease, colitis or helping an athlete manage proper nutrition. “No matter the condition my approach remains consistent – work with families to help find reasonable and affordable ways to help manage their diets and ease symptoms,” she says.
With a higher than average rate of obesity in Lewis County, managing weight is the most common issue for patients, and their entire families. Working to establish healthier habits while they are young, avoiding more serious, and expensive, issues in adulthood such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
“It’s a challenge to help make healthy eating affordable for patients,” Powell admits.
“Insurance doesn’t always cover nutritional visits,” agrees McKay, “so it can be difficult to get families to choose this option. Northwest Pediatric Center has reduced fees to make it easier for the patient and their family to take advantage of this service. Nutrition and obesity is not just a one child issue, it’s a family issue.”
Changing eating habits is hard. We all know this. Powell works to make small changes first. “We make it really individualized and help the families work together. We start with looking at food, identifying the big issues in the first appointment such as drinking water instead of soda and juice or snacking on healthy options instead of on junk food. After this, we fine tune as they continue in the program.” Powell helps set small, achievable goals that patients and parents can stick to.
“We’ve seen great success in our obesity program and dropping BMIs in patients,” says McKay.
What does Powell like most about her role? “I enjoy the face-to-face patient relationships, getting to know patients and what works for them,” she shares. “I get to see patients over time, too, seeing kids grow up and get better.”
The core mission for Northwest Pediatric Centers is to create and help care for healthy families. By bringing services to the community such as Powell’s nutritional expertise, they not only help families in Lewis County with their health, but with living. When you make access and care easier and more affordable, positive changes happen. And positive changes make for happy, healthy and active kids.
To schedule an appointment with Northwest Pediatric Center or Registered Dietician Heather Powell, call their Centralia main office at 360-736-6778.
Sponsored
