Children's Hospital is part of the UPMC family.
Our Sites
Be safe anytime, anywhere.
To find a pediatrician or pediatric specialist, please call 412-692-7337 or search our directory.
A resource for our network of referring physicians.
For more information about research, please call our main office at 412-692-6438.
Ranked #8 Nationally by U.S. News & World Report.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a lifelong inflammation of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. How severe it is can vary.
Our expert team at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh provides complete care for children with IBD.
Through medicine and diet changes, we can help ease symptoms, promote growth, and enhance your child's quality of life.
We welcome referrals. You also can schedule your child's visit on your own.
To learn more or make an appointment with an IBD expert at UPMC Children's, call 412-692-5180.
IBD is a lifelong inflammation of the GI tract. Symptoms range from mild to severe.
IBD and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) are not the same health issue, but they can occur at the same time.
The rate of IBD continues to increase in children, mostly in young, school-aged kids.
Types of IBD include:
In all forms of IBD, you can have inflammation in other parts of your body outside of the GI tract. Doctors often call these “extraintestinal manifestations."
They most often involve the eyes, joints, bones, skin, kidneys, and liver.
You can't catch IBD from someone else. But research shows a mix of genetic or environmental risk factors can trigger it.
These include:
If your genes make you more likely to get IBD, your white blood cells may have an abnormal immune response. They send out proteins (cytokines like TNF-alpha and interleukins) to attack the GI tract. This causes swelling and injures the tissue.
A child with IBD may have symptoms such as:
To diagnose IBD, your child will have a physical exam.
The doctor will check for IBD symptoms and may also order:
There's currently no cure for IBD.
Our team will work with you to create a complete treatment plan for your child, which may include:
The goal of IBD treatment is to:
Your child's GI doctor at UPMC Children's will discuss with you what they suggest for treatment. We aim to find the best mix for your child.
The short-term use of certain medicines can stop IBD symptoms (induction therapies). We may add others to manage the disease over the long term (maintenance therapies).
Drugs doctors often use to treat IBD also suppress the immune response. Your child may need to have lab tests every 3 to 6 months. This lets their doctor watch for any side effects and check their response to treatment.
The following medicines doctors often use to manage IBD, either as induction or maintenance treatments.
Induction and/or maintenance
Induction
Maintenance
If your child's treatment plan includes infusions, we have an Infusion Center on the 4th floor of the hospital. There, they can receive IVs for their IBD in comfort.
People with IBD should eat a well-balanced, unprocessed, whole-food diet — in other words, a Mediterranean diet. Special diets can work as the sole treatment for some kids, but we mainly use them with medicines.
Changes to diet and nutrition for kids with IBD include:
If left untreated, your child's IBD symptoms may get worse and may also cause:
Even with treatment, your child may need surgery to ease severe symptoms or remove damaged intestine that medicine can't improve.
Self-care is also vital to manage IBD well.
Be sure your child does the following:
Your care team will give you a letter to set up a 504 plan with your child's school.
This will allow for special accommodations, such as:
Also, make sure to talk with our social worker about secondary medical assistance insurance. Your child qualifies based on their IBD diagnosis alone.
Download our "Understanding IBD" booklet (PDF).
Children's Hospital's main campus is located in the Lawrenceville neighborhood. Our main hospital address is:
UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh One Children’s Hospital Way 4401 Penn Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15224
In addition to the main hospital, Children's has many convenient locations in other neighborhoods throughout the greater Pittsburgh region.
With MyCHP, you can request appointments, review test results, and more.
For questions about a hospital bill call:
To pay your bill online, please visit UPMC's online bill payment system.
Interested in giving to Children's Hospital? Support the hospital by making a donation online, joining our Heroes in Healing monthly donor program, or visiting our site to learn about the other ways you can give back.