Clinical Nutrition

Blythedale Children's Hospital and its Clinical Nutrition Department provides the highest caliber of medical nutrition therapy with a patient-centered focus and quality-of-life approach.

Baby with speech therapist testing foods

Contact information

Tony Corda, General Manager, Food and Nutrition/Environmental Services

About Our Department

Our dietitians create individualized meal plans for patients with allergies, dietary restrictions and specialized diets, while working alongside the child's speech therapist to ensure the best results.

The clinical nutrition team collaborates with the multidisciplinary teams at Blythedale to develop the Hospital's robust enteral feeding formulary, individualized toddler and pediatric patient menus, and supports Blythedale's inpatient and outpatient Intensive Feeding Program.

For the infant population at Blythedale Children's Hospital, the Clinical Nutrition team meticulously creates patient specific formula recipes, ensuring each child receives optimal nutrition for development and growth.  

Patients and caregivers are also continuously educated on nutritional goals in preparation for success after hospital discharge.

Clinical Nutrition Key Contacts

Profile photo for Tony Corda

Tony Corda

General Manager, Food and Nutrition/Environmental Services

Hannah Bakowski

Hannah Bakowski, MS, RDN

Clinical Nutrition Manager

Treatments We Support

With the only dedicated post-acute pediatric brain injury unit in New York State - specifically constructed to treat children and adolescents with brain injuries - and our expertly trained clinical team, Blythedale is uniquely positioned to provide the best environment for recovery.

Blythedale is the only specialty children’s hospital in New York State with the capability of providing the highest level of medical care and rehabilitation for children recovering from complex medical conditions, including childhood cancers.

Blythedale’s commitment to the highest level of medical and rehabilitative care, and ongoing integration of the newest cardiac support technologies for medically fragile children, is evident in our Cardiac Rehabilitation program.

As an expert in helping medically fragile children achieve their highest potential, Blythedale is well-suited to help transition a child with multiple complex chronic conditions from hospital to home.

For children recovering from multiple traumatic injuries, extensive orthopedic surgery or complex surgery, Blythedale offers a highly specialized, integrated approach to care.

Blythedale is a center of excellence in treating children with complex burns and wounds. The goal of the complex wound rehabilitation team is to obtain maximum autonomy and functionality while maintaining the optimal integrity of the healing wound or grafts with scar control.

Blythedale is widely recognized as a leader in treating children with rare conditions, spinal cord injury, neuromuscular disorders including muscular dystrophy and other myopathies, neuropathies, motor neuron diseases and neuromuscular junction disorders as well as complex genetic syndromes.

Blythedale has a commitment to achieving the best outcomes for infants coming for intensive rehabilitation following Neonatal Intensive Care stays. With a staff of full-time neonatologists overseeing the care our infants, and the addition of neonatal fellows, Blythedale continues to push the boundaries of what post-acute neonatal care can provide to medically fragile infants.

At Blythedale Children’s Hospital, a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week, pediatric attending staff supports infants, children and adolescents prior to and following complicated transplant procedures including heart, liver, kidney, bowel, and even multi-organ transplants.

Pulmonary hypertension is relatively rare, occurring in only two children per one million. Despite its low occurrence, Blythedale treated 30 children with pulmonary hypertension last year.

Blythedale’s Pulmonary Rehabilitation program is widely recognized as a national center of excellence due to the Hospital’s extraordinary success weaning fragile infants and children from respiratory support machines for an improved quality of life. Our parent training programs help ensure that caregivers are both confident and competent in caring for their child.

As the only pediatric specialty hospital in New York State, Blythedale Children’s Hospital has the ability to evaluate and treat complex feeding difficulties in children with a team of pediatric specialists who work exclusively with medically fragile children.