Breta Alstrom, MS, RDN

who i help

I work with families with kids with neurodevelopmental disabilities and complex health needs. I’ve always wanted to work with kids, but during my Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND) traineeship at the University of Kansas Medical Center, I realised this incredible gap for families and autistic kids.

I had the opportunity to work with both family and self-advocates during my LEND experience and I started to notice, not only in nutrition overlooked in most care teams, but parents are suffering and neglecting their own health needs.

family nutrition

I take a family-centered approach to healthcare. All interventions are based on the families unique needs and personal goals where parents and individuals are seen as the experts in themselves. Additionally, I work to streamline care to prevent caregiver fatigue by modifying strategies utilized in other therapies to meet nutrition and feeding needs.

integrative and functional medicine | biomedical approach

Integrative and functional medicine takes a root cause approach to health. It’s so much more than just what you are eating. Your child is fully assessed from health history to environmental impacts. Depending on the child there are also several testing options that can help guide the interventions and improve outcomes.

how it started

This is always a challenging question for me to answer. When people ask me why autism or even why nutrition, my brain still has a moment of panic. Most people in this space have a really clear why, most often relating to an autistic family member or another similar experience. But for the longest time, I just felt like THIS is what I’m supposed to do.

Food and nutrition have always been a core value to my family. But more so with my brother. Growing up, he struggled with several food sensitivities and even though he tried to hide it, I watched him push through the pain that food caused so he could do the things he loved, whether it was eating amazing food he cooked or playing the sports he loved. He eliminated several food groups for a long time and would get better but not having the right information led to over restriction and a lack of answers.

Fast forward to when I was in college and little did I know, food was putting limits on my life. I was playing college softball and couldn’t get through a game without drinking at least two high calorie supplements, I was exhausted, and I was missing important things due to my dysfunctional GI tract. It all came to a precipice when I ended up crying in a movie theater bathroom wondering if I needed to go to the ER. The next day I started a basic elimination diet and eventually found one that was nourishing and healing. Now, my gut is in great shape, I rarely have GI symptoms and my diet is more flexible than ever. I’m able to eat foods that used to make it difficult to get out of bed, but I’m still mindful and often opt to leave those foods out on a daily basis.

When I started my LEND traineeship, I really wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into. But after a semester, I knew that I was going to start a private practice to fully support families with kids with complex health needs using integrative and functional medicine.

where it’s going

The goal of Nourished Together is to fully support the health of families with kids with complex health needs. Families deserve to be heard, create their own goals, and treated like experts in themselves. Long-term, my goal is for the model of Nourished Together to be transformed into a cutting edge hospital designed specifically with the needs of autistic children and their families in mind.