ABOUT AMY PATTON
You have done everything you were told to do.Your child is still struggling.
You are right to trust that feeling. This is where you get to know me, and the thinking behind how I practice.
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THE SHORT VERSION
Why did I build a practice around the missing pieces?
I started my career in underserved communities, and later spent years in primary care. What I saw there is the whole reason this practice exists. The same children kept coming back with symptoms that never resolved, or resolved and returned. They were handed from specialist to specialist to have one symptom softened at a time. Lots of waiting. Lots of frustration from parents who could see the whole child while everyone else was looking at one piece of them.
The children with neurodevelopmental challenges were the most underserved of all. So I went and became a developmental specialist, because I wanted to be genuinely good at helping them, not adjacent to it.
And then I watched what a label does. A child gets a diagnosis and gets put in a box, and every provider after that refers back to the box. Hard behaviors? That is the autism. New aggression? Let's medicate it. Nobody stopped to ask why a symptom that was not there last year is there now. Parents have a gut feeling that something more is going on, and they are not being heard, and they are right.
"A fifteen minute visit does not have room for the question that matters: what is this child's body trying to tell us?"
I founded Happy Kid Functional Medicine to raise the standard of care for children and families who are ready for real answers instead of quick fixes.
HOW I WORK
How do I practice differently?
Instead of asking how do we manage this behavior, I ask a different question. What is your child's body trying to tell us? What is driving this? Where is the overwhelm coming from?
Compassion
I meet every family exactly where they are. If you are already growing your own food and have cleared every product out of your house, your plan looks one way. If you are exhausted and eating fast food most nights, it looks another. Neither one is a judgment.
Root cause thinking
I look past the symptom to what is generating it. Sometimes that is the gut. Sometimes it is iron, or sleep, or an infection nobody looked for, or how your child's body handles the nutrients it already has. The goal is to understand the whole picture, not just one symptom.
Family centered care
Your family's needs, values and real life sit at the center of every recommendation. I will never hand you a plan that is unreasonable. Parents ask me constantly whether I am going to take away the four foods their child still eats. The answer is no.
Clarity over confusion. Root cause over reaction. Testing, not guessing.
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THE SHORT VERSION
What is the Missing Piece Method?
The Missing Piece Method is my signature six month program, and it is a guided journey rather than a protocol. I want to be specific about that word. Nobody who works with me is ever going to feel like they are being run through a protocol, because your child is not a protocol.
Most families arrive having already seen multiple providers and specialists. Some arrive having seen nobody at all and are simply drowning in options and decisions with the distinct feeling that nobody has actually listened. Both of those families land in the same place: I know there is something more going on with my child and it has not been found.
So we gather objective data. Functional testing, traditional testing, or both, chosen for your child specifically. Then I build a tailored plan and we start carrying it out from day one.
Reveal
Your child's full story, and objective testing chosen for what you are actually describing. Not a panel I run on everyone. This is also where we rule things out, which matters just as much
Rebuild
We start with the foundations, then work in phases. Gut first. Calm and seal before we ask the body to clear anything. One new thing at a time so we always know what is working.
Rewire
Nervous system, sleep, regulation, school, family rhythm, and your child's own growing sense that their body is a place they can trust again.
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PROGRAM DETAILS
What is the Missing Piece Method?
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Four visits with me across the six months
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Texting access with me in between, so a problem does not wait a month
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A written Parent Roadmap at every visit, so you always know why we are doing what we are doing
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My online coursework covering the foundations: sleep, breathing, nutrition and more
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Coordination with your pediatrician and any specialists already involved
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A plan that flexes when your child's response or your family's capacity says it should
HONESTLY
What happens when I do not have the answer?
I do not want anyone to think I have all the answers, because I do not. What I will tell you is that I do not stop looking.
I have a whole network of clinicians I can consult, people who have been doing this for decades and have seen far more cases than I have. I tell my patients that outright. Those people are an extension of me, which means they are an extension of your child's care team too. I go to conferences. I chase down the research. If I do not know something, I will seek out the answer through any avenue I can find, because I want the best for the children in my practice.
And if what your child needs is a neurologist, a geneticist, an immune specialist, a dietitian, or a chiropractor, I will say so and help you get there. This work is complementary. It was never meant to be the whole of your child's care.
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CREDENTIALS
What are my credentials, and do they matter?
Honestly, most parents are not seeking me out because of the letters after my name. They find me because of what they have read and what another parent told them, and then they ask me about my background on our first call.
So here it is plainly. I am a Doctor of Nursing Practice and a board certified Pediatric Nurse Practitioner in primary care. I hold a functional medicine certification through the Functional Medicine Academy, and I am a member of the Medical Academy of Pediatric Special Needs. I am licensed in Nebraska and see families in person in Omaha, plus telehealth in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Tennessee and Virginia.
I do not take insurance. Because I am a pediatric nurse practitioner I can provide a superbill, which some families submit for out of network reimbursement. More on cost and insurance →
WHAT FAMILIES SAY
What changes first?
Parents usually start telling me about changes at home before they tell me about anything on paper.
The early changes
More attentive. Playing the way you would expect for their age. Behaviors calmer than they have been in a long time. Sleeping better. Eating better, with an appetite that finally showed up. Feeling more like themselves again. These changes often come faster than most parents expect.
The one that stays with me
What families tell me most often is not about a lab result. It is that they finally have someone on their team. Somebody walking the whole journey with them who genuinely cares how it turns out, and who is still looking when the first idea does not work.
Parent stories on this site are real and are published with names and identifying details changed for privacy.
WHERE WE SERVE
In person in Omaha, and by telehealth in six states.
In Person
Omaha, Nebraska
Telehealth
Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee, Virginia
Not on that list? Reach out anyway. I would rather tell you honestly what I can and can't do than leave you guessing, and if I can't see you I'll point you toward someone who can.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amy Patton, DNP, APRN, CPNP-PC
Pediatric nurse practitioner and founder of Happy Kid Functional Medicine
I'm a pediatric nurse practitioner with more than a decade of clinical experience, and the founder of Happy Kid Functional Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska. I started my career in underserved communities and spent years in primary care watching the same children come back with the same unresolved symptoms, handed from specialist to specialist while nobody actually got to the bottom of it. I built this practice so those families would have somewhere else to go.
If this is an emergency, do not wait on me. If your child is in crisis right now, call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or go to your nearest emergency department. For a sudden severe medical change, heavy bleeding, trouble breathing, or a seizure, call 911 or your child’s pediatrician.
I am the person you call about the plan we built together, about a reaction to something we started, and about symptoms getting worse on my watch.
LAST WORDS
A diagnosis is a starting point, not a finish line. Behavior is not the problem. It is the clue.
You know your child better than any test I will ever run. My job is to find the evidence for what you have been saying all along.
With you in this, Amy
Amy Patton, DNP, APRN, CPNP-PC · Happy Kid Functional Medicine