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Mission
What is the Grow Clinic for Children?
How do I Refer a Child?
Useful Links
Director: Deborah Frank, M.D.
Phone: (617) 414-5251
Appointments: (617) 414-5251
Our Mission
To provide comprehensive specialty medical, nutritional, social services and dietary assistance to children from the Greater Boston Area referred with Failure To Thrive.
What is the Grow Clinic for Children?
The Grow Clinic for Children is an outpatient subspecialty clinic at Boston Medical Center, started in 1984 to provide comprehensive specialty medical, nutritional and social services and dietary assistance to children from the Greater Boston area referred with Failure to Thrive by their primary care physician.
 Children with FTT have significant problems growing and are not keeping pace with weight or height gain when compared to other children their age. Children who are not growing according to national standards are referred here by clinics and physicians throughout the Greater Boston area for special care and follow-up.
The children in the Grow Clinic are mildly to moderately malnourished. Because malnutrition is both a medical problem and a social/economic condition, the clinic takes a multidisciplinary approach to the care of FTT children and their families. This approach recognizes that there is a relationship between a safe and secure family environment and the nutritional status of the child.
The Children's Sentinel Nutrition Assessment Program (C-SNAP) is the outreach and research arm, identifying for further services children in the pediatric emergency room with food insecurity and previously identified Failure to Thrive and monitoring the impact of public policy on the health of children ages zero to three.
The staff at the Grow Clinic for Children is a diverse group of clinicians providing medical treatment, nutrition counseling, and social services to Failure to Thrive children and their families.
These statistics can help to illustrate the extent of what we're up against, and also show just how successful we've been.
Our services extend beyond traditional medical treatment. Our very successful outreach
program helps patients' families access essentials such as nutritious foods, clothing, transportation, proper housing, and other fundamental necessities.
These special services, the key to our clinic's success and survival, depend entirely on
donations from the private sector. Learn more about charitable opportunities, including
donations, volunteering, and internships, or go right ahead and....Contact us!
How do I refer a child?
If you are the child’s primary care physician and would like to refer your FTT patient to the Grow Clinic you can fill out a referral form (click here for form) and fax it to (617) 414-7047.
- The waiting time for new FTT children is 1-2 weeks, which has decreased dramatically from the initial 3-4 months, due to the generosity of our donors.
Useful Links
The Grow Clinic for Children
Boston Medical Center
725 Massachusetts Ave. Mezz SW
Boston, MA 02118
Phone: (617) 414-5251
Fax: (617) 414-7047
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