NICU Graduate & Medically Complex Follow-Up
The NICU discharge period is one of the highest-need transitions in infant care. The Institute for Infant Feeding and Early Development provides specialized outpatient follow-up for NICU graduates and medically complex infants, bringing together feeding evaluation and therapy, lactation support, nutrition assessment, and developmental evaluation as needed after hospital discharge.
Why This Matters
Many NICU graduates are discharged before oral feeding is fully established. Families go home managing complex routines: pacing, positioning, tube supplementation, low-volume feeds, and significant caregiver anxiety, without the clinical support structure that surrounded them in the hospital.
Outpatient follow-up provides the continued assessment, structure, and guidance that many of these infants and families need. We help families manage the transition from NICU to home with practical, individualized support across feeding, growth, and development, not just weight gain in isolation.
Clinical Credentials
Both clinicians bring direct Level III and IV NICU clinical experience: not credential-only preparation, but hands-on care with preterm and medically complex infants at the highest acuity levels.
Both also hold the Certified Neonatal Therapist (CNT) credential, issued through the Academy of Neonatal Therapy and requiring demonstrated clinical competency in NICU-level care. Together, this means the clinical framework guiding their outpatient work is genuinely shaped by the NICU context your patient came from.
Which Patients We Support
Our Approach
Our approach to post-discharge feeding is shaped by neuroprotective care principles and the developmental framework underlying neonatal therapy practice. We assess feeding function in the context of the infant's developmental stage, medical history, and physiologic stability, not behavioral compliance or volume targets alone.
Caregiver education and confidence are treated as clinical outcomes alongside feeding skill development. A parent who understands what they are observing, why it is happening, and what to do next is one of the most powerful supports for a post-NICU infant's feeding trajectory.
For Referring Teams
We are available to be included in discharge planning conversations for families who will need outpatient feeding follow-up. Early coordination helps ensure timely post-discharge scheduling and a smoother transition for families.
We accept referrals from NICU follow-up clinic providers identifying post-discharge feeding concerns. Evaluation and therapy summaries can be provided for follow-up clinic documentation upon request.
Pediatricians and APPs identifying feeding concerns in former NICU patients during well-child or follow-up visits may refer directly. We coordinate with primary care on intake, growth, and feeding-related recommendations as appropriate.
When nutritional management and feeding function overlap, as they frequently do in medically complex infants, we collaborate with registered dietitians to ensure feeding therapy goals align with nutritional targets and that both clinical perspectives inform the care plan.
For patients managed by multidisciplinary complex care or medical home teams, we function as the outpatient feeding and swallowing resource. We communicate clearly and can participate in care coordination as appropriate to the patient's needs.
For NICU graduates whose families are navigating breastfeeding alongside oral feeding development, we work alongside lactation consultants to address oral function, transfer, and feeding progression in a clinically aligned way.
Ready to Refer
To initiate a referral for a post-discharge infant or discuss a patient's clinical situation, contact our team directly. We welcome conversations with NICU teams, pediatricians, follow-up clinic providers, and all other clinical partners involved in neonatal and post-discharge care.