Therapeutic nutrition for children
A medically supervised eating plan built around one child — what they will actually eat, what their results show, and what the family can realistically keep going at home.
Nutrition is one part of the plan — not the plan
Food is often the piece that has been missed, and occasionally it is the piece that changes the most. It is almost never the only thing a child needs. This is where it sits at Spectra.
Which means the honest answer to “will changing his food fix this?” is usually “it will help with some of it, and we will tell you which part.” A plan that over-promises is a plan a family abandons in three weeks.
What usually brings a family to a nutrition assessment
If several of these sound familiar, it is worth a proper look rather than another change of brand or supplement.
A very narrow list of accepted foods
Strong reactions to texture, smell, colour or temperature, a diet that has been shrinking rather than widening, or mealtimes that have become a daily conflict.
Energy and focus that fall off
Fatigue, restlessness, or attention that collapses through the school day — particularly where the pattern tracks with meals, skipped breakfast or long gaps.
Digestive complaints that keep returning
Constipation, bloating, reflux or abdominal pain that has been treated repeatedly without anyone reviewing the whole diet behind it.
Suspected deficiencies
Iron, vitamin D, zinc or B12 concerns raised by symptoms or by a previous result nobody has since acted on.
Growth that is drifting
Weight or height tracking away from what was expected for age, in either direction, on the growth records you already have.
A therapy programme that has stalled
A child in speech, occupational or behavioural sessions whose progress flattened, where sleep, appetite or gut symptoms keep interrupting the work.
Five rules we hold ourselves to
These are the constraints the clinician works inside. They exist because most nutrition advice families arrive with has broken at least one of them.
Nothing comes out of the diet without a reason
Elimination is a clinical decision with a defined purpose and a defined end point, not a default. Removing foods from a child who is already eating a narrow range can make the picture worse, and we will say so.
Tests are ordered to change something
Laboratory work is requested when the result would actually alter the plan. Where a previous result still answers the question, we read that instead of repeating it. Tests are explained before they are ordered.
Supplements are medicines, and are treated like medicines
Dose, duration, interactions and a review date — and a written reason for each one. If your child is already on a shelf of supplements, bring them all; deciding what to stop is often the first useful step.
The plan has to survive a normal week
School, siblings, a working parent, an Egyptian kitchen and a limited budget. A plan built around foods a family cannot buy or cook is a plan that fails quietly and leaves everyone feeling they failed.
Progress is reviewed, not assumed
You get a follow-up date and something specific to watch between now and then. If nothing has moved, we change the plan rather than telling you to try harder.
Your first nutrition visit
The care team confirms the appointment length when they schedule you, so you can plan the day around it.
| Diet and medical history | What your child actually eats across a normal week, not an ideal one. Appetite, textures, refusals, mealtime behaviour, bowel pattern, sleep and current medicines. |
|---|---|
| Reading what you already have | Previous laboratory results, growth records and reports from other clinicians are reviewed before anything new is considered. |
| Clinical judgement on testing | Whether investigation is indicated, which one, and what would change depending on the result. |
| A written plan | What to add, what to adjust, in what order — plus what is deliberately being left alone for now, and a review date. |
When nutrition is not the right first step
Rapid weight loss, dehydration, refusal to drink, choking or breathing difficulty during feeds, or a child who has stopped eating altogether needs urgent medical assessment — call 123 or go to the nearest emergency department. A nutrition plan also does not replace treatment your child is already receiving.
What to bring with you
- Previous laboratory and imaging results, however old
- Growth records — weight and height over time if you have them
- Every supplement and medicine currently being given, with doses
- A rough note of what your child ate over three ordinary days
- Any allergy or intolerance reports, and what happened
- What has already been tried at home, and what went wrong with it
Findings go back to the therapy departments, so a feeding or gut issue picked up here reaches the team running the child’s weekly sessions.
Nutrition here is medically supervised
Therapeutic nutrition at Spectra sits inside the functional medicine track. The plan is set and reviewed by a consultant, not handed over as a printed sheet.
Dr. Ehab El Emam
Consultant Paediatrician & Neonatologist. Food allergy and coeliac disease, and the dietary side of developmental presentations.
Dr. Mohamed Afify
Consultant Pediatrician & Functional Neurologist. Sets the medical direction for the functional medicine track.
Dr. Mai Mohamed Ghazy
Paediatric Consultant, Feeding & Swallowing. The referral when the difficulty is the act of eating itself.
Questions parents ask
Which children benefit most?
Children whose eating is genuinely narrow, whose digestion or energy keeps interfering with daily life, who have a suspected or confirmed deficiency, or who are in a therapy programme that has stalled for reasons nobody has pinned down. If food is not actually the issue, we would rather tell you that at the assessment than sell you a plan.
Do we need blood tests before starting?
Not necessarily. Sometimes the history and your existing results are enough to start. Where testing would change the plan, the clinician explains which test, what is being looked for and what each outcome would mean before anything is ordered.
Will you ask us to remove foods?
Only with a clinical reason, a defined purpose and an end point. With a very selective eater the usual first move is the opposite — widening the accepted range before anything is taken away.
How long before we notice a difference?
It depends entirely on what is being addressed; correcting a documented deficiency behaves very differently from rebuilding a child’s relationship with food. What you will get at the first visit is something specific to watch and a date to review it, rather than a number we cannot honestly promise.
Does this replace therapy or medical treatment?
No. It runs alongside them. Where appropriate the clinician coordinates with your child’s existing physicians and with our therapy departments rather than duplicating or contradicting them.
Can you work with a child who refuses almost everything?
Yes, and that child usually needs two things at once: the medical and nutritional side here, and structured feeding therapy for the behaviour and the mechanics of eating. Treating either one alone is why progress often stops.
Is this a diet for autism or ADHD?
There is no Spectra diet for a diagnosis. Some children with autism or ADHD have real feeding, gut or deficiency problems worth addressing, and addressing them can help those children function better — that is not the same as a nutrition protocol treating the diagnosis, and we will not present it as one.
What about supplements we already give?
Bring all of them, in their packaging. Reviewing what is already being taken — and often stopping some of it — is a normal part of the first visit.
Do you see adults?
The service is built around children and adolescents, which is most of who we see. Parents and adults wanting the same structured review can ask the care team; the clinic is not restricted by age.
Where nutrition fits with everything else
Functional medicine
The whole-child medical review that usually comes first.
Feeding therapy
For children whose difficulty is the act of eating itself.
Functional blood tests
When a deficiency or metabolic pattern needs confirming.
Conditions we treat
Every presentation and where it is handled.
Medically reviewed by the Spectra Cure Clinic Egypt functional medicine team — Dr. Mohamed Afify and Dr. Ehab El Emam. Last reviewed July 2026. Spectra Cure Clinic Egypt, 2nd Floor, Building B, Saga Boulevard Complex, Mohamed Naguib Axis, New Cairo 3. Open daily, 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM.
Start with the assessment, not with a diet
Tell the care team what your child eats and what you are worried about. They will tell you whether a nutrition assessment is the right first step — and what to book instead if it is not.
Medical information on this page is general and is not a diagnosis or a personal treatment recommendation. Any dietary change for a child should be decided with the treating clinician. In an emergency, call 123 or go to the nearest emergency department immediately.
