Caring for children with IBD: Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease Program
Caring for children with IBD: Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease Program
Caring for children with IBD: Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease Program
At Children's Health℠ the Southwestern Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Program offers comprehensive care to children with IBD and intestinal immune disorders. Our hope is to help children achieve periods of their lives where they don’t have symptoms (remission). Our pediatric IBD team has an 80% remission rate without the use of harsh steroid medications.
This means that most children who go through our program often enter remission, which improves their long-term health and overall quality of life. Our leading experts use patient-specific treatments, innovative techniques, genetic research and a collaborative approach to address IBD and intestinal immune disorders.
Steroid-free treatments and effective therapies for IBD
Steroid medication is often used to manage IBD but it causes side effects, like nausea, upset stomach, weight gain and mood changes. To avoid these harsh effects, our GI experts use other medications and therapies to help improve IBD.
We believe every IBD patient is unique, which is why we use a personalized approach to understand your child’s condition and build a custom treatment plan that works best for them. In addition to medications, we use nutritional therapies like exclusive enteral nutrition, Crohn’s disease exclusion diet (CDED) and specific carbohydrate diet (SCD) to help manage IBD. We also use non-traditional therapies, like yoga, meditation and dietary supplements to complement your child’s care.
Our team of gastroenterologists, immunologists, colorectal surgeons, GI psychologists, IBD-focused dieticians and integrative therapists work together to create an effective care plan for your child. Our collaborative approach brings together all our caregivers under one roof to effectively manage your child’s IBD.
From diagnosis to remission, our goal is to help your child thrive.
Though Maddie fortunately hasn’t spent much time on the inpatient unit the past few years, the relationships and connections we have made over the years there have truly lasted, and we look forward to giving back each year.
Research and collaboration: Finding new ways to treat IBD
Medical research and collaboration are important in discovering new ways to manage IBD and advancing future care for children with IBD. This is why our GI specialists have come together to co-create the ImproveCareNow (ICN) community. The ICN is an online community that connects physicians, researchers, and patients together to share and learn about the different treatment options for IBD.
We also continue to do genetic research to learn more about how and why IBD happens, ultimately hoping to find a cure. This disease impacts 1.5 million people in the United States — 25% of which are children. Learn more about our ongoing studies and clinical trials led by our world-renowned GI experts.
Helping children with IBD and other immune disorders
As part of our IBD program, the Pediatric Intestinal Immunology Clinic (PIIC) provides care for children with early onset IBD (children under 6 years of age), severe IBD and gastrointestinal disorders in children who have different forms of immune deficiency disorders.
Gastrointestinal symptoms, like diarrhea, abdominal pain, bloody stool, and inflammation in the GI tract are some of the most common and first signs children with immune deficiency disorders experience.
At this clinic, our GI doctors and immunology specialists work together to perform genetic testing to help diagnose and treat these rare but debilitating disorders.
Having an immunologist and gastroenterologist in one location means that children can receive treatment for all these issues at once. Specific medications and therapies are used to target the unique immune issue that is causing debilitating symptoms. Our goal is to ease symptoms and manage your child’s condition so they can live a healthy, happy life.
Support groups and organizations
We partner with several organizations that focus on helping children and families with IBD. These include:
Community-based support groups hosted by Gut It Out
Yearly camps and local support groups by the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation (CCF)
Steroid-free treatments and effective therapies for IBD
Steroid medication is often used to manage IBD but it causes side effects, like nausea, upset stomach, weight gain and mood changes. To avoid these harsh effects, our GI experts use other medications and therapies to help improve IBD.
We believe every IBD patient is unique, which is why we use a personalized approach to understand your child’s condition and build a custom treatment plan that works best for them. In addition to medications, we use nutritional therapies like exclusive enteral nutrition, Crohn’s disease exclusion diet (CDED) and specific carbohydrate diet (SCD) to help manage IBD. We also use non-traditional therapies, like yoga, meditation and dietary supplements to complement your child’s care.
Our team of gastroenterologists, immunologists, colorectal surgeons, GI psychologists, IBD-focused dieticians and integrative therapists work together to create an effective care plan for your child. Our collaborative approach brings together all our caregivers under one roof to effectively manage your child’s IBD.
From diagnosis to remission, our goal is to help your child thrive.
Research and collaboration: Finding new ways to treat IBD
Medical research and collaboration are important in discovering new ways to manage IBD and advancing future care for children with IBD. This is why our GI specialists have come together to co-create the ImproveCareNow (ICN) community. The ICN is an online community that connects physicians, researchers, and patients together to share and learn about the different treatment options for IBD.
We also continue to do genetic research to learn more about how and why IBD happens, ultimately hoping to find a cure. This disease impacts 1.5 million people in the United States — 25% of which are children. Learn more about our ongoing studies and clinical trials led by our world-renowned GI experts.
Helping children with IBD and other immune disorders
As part of our IBD program, the Pediatric Intestinal Immunology Clinic (PIIC) provides care for children with early onset IBD (children under 6 years of age), severe IBD and gastrointestinal disorders in children who have different forms of immune deficiency disorders.
Gastrointestinal symptoms, like diarrhea, abdominal pain, bloody stool, and inflammation in the GI tract are some of the most common and first signs children with immune deficiency disorders experience.
At this clinic, our GI doctors and immunology specialists work together to perform genetic testing to help diagnose and treat these rare but debilitating disorders.
Having an immunologist and gastroenterologist in one location means that children can receive treatment for all these issues at once. Specific medications and therapies are used to target the unique immune issue that is causing debilitating symptoms. Our goal is to ease symptoms and manage your child’s condition so they can live a healthy, happy life.
Support groups and organizations
We partner with several organizations that focus on helping children and families with IBD. These include:
Community-based support groups hosted by Gut It Out
Yearly camps and local support groups by the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation (CCF)
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Meet the care team
Bhaskar Gurram, MDPediatric Gastroenterologist
Jacobo Santolaya, MDPediatric Gastroenterologist
Mhammad Gaith Semrin, MDPediatric Gastroenterologist
Luis Sifuentes-Dominguez, MDPediatric Gastroenterologist
Jeremy Stewart, MDPediatric Gastroenterologist
Srisindu Vellanki, MDPediatric Gastroenterologist
Christian Wysocki, MDPediatric Immunologist
Phuong Luu, PA-CPhysician Assistant - Gastroenterology
Laura Burgos, LCSW-SLCSW-S
Shannon Clark, PhDPhD
Sophie Stevens, LPC, EMDR CertifiedLPC
