THE MISSING PIECE METHOD™
One plan, built for your child, over six months.
Not a panel I run on everyone. Not twenty supplements at once. A guided six month journey that starts with the foundations and moves one phase at a time.
- PARENT'S QUICK TAKE
What is the Missing Piece Method? The Missing Piece Method is my six month guided program: four long visits in person or virtual, functional testing ordered and explained in plain language, a personalized plan, weekly curriculum, private messaging access to me between visits, and a graduation plan and what happens after the breakthrough. Reveal what is driving things, rebuild the foundations, rewire what follows and what to know before you choose a plan.
- QUICK ANSWER
What does working with Happy Kid Functional Medicine look like?
Working together means a free consult first, then a six month guided program called the Missing Piece Method. It includes four visits with me, texting access in between, a written Parent Roadmap at every visit, and access to my online foundational coursework. Testing is chosen for your child rather than run by default, and the plan changes when your child's response or your family's capacity says it should.
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FIT
Who do I work with?
Children whose symptoms have never been fully accounted for, and the parents who have been carrying that for a long time. Most families who reach me have already tried therapy, medications and strategies. Many have collected several partial explanations from several different specialists and never had anyone assemble them.
I see children in person in Omaha and by telehealth in Arizona, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Tennessee and Virginia. If you are somewhere else, still reach out. I will tell you honestly what I can and cannot do, and I will point you toward someone who can help if I cannot. How the visits, labs and payment work at a distance.
THE FLOW
How do visits actually go?
The free Happy Kid Consult
A relaxed conversation about your child and everything you have already tried. I listen to the whole story and ask a few clarifying questions. Then I tell you what I am thinking, what testing I believe would give us the most value for your child specifically, and what that would cost. I also tell you about me, so you can decide whether we are aligned. If somebody else is a better fit, I will say that too.
The deep dive first visit
The long one. Birth history, feeding history, illnesses, antibiotics, the moves, the exposures, the day things changed. Everything you have watched and been told did not matter. This is where I treat you as the expert on your child, because you are.
Testing, chosen not defaulted
Sometimes that is conventional bloodwork your insurance covers. Sometimes it is functional testing and how I choose which tests to run. Often it is both. I also choose collection methods your child can actually tolerate. There are more ways to collect a sample than a blood draw, and I will not put a child through something traumatic to get a data point I can get another way. More on testing →
The six month arc
We work in phases. Why six months, and what it costs. Foundations first, then gut, then whatever the testing and your child's response point to next. Some things get layered in while others get layered out. You get a written Parent Roadmap each visit so you always know where we are and where I think we are headed. And if your child leads somewhere else, we follow the child rather than the plan.
WHERE TO START
What can we work on together?
Focus that is a daily fight
Homework that takes 3 hours. Mornings that fall apart. A checklist at school said ADHD, and something about that answer never sat right with you.
Support around an autism diagnosis
You love your child exactly as they are and you want them comfortable in their own body. Both of those are true at the same time.
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A belly nobody can explain
Constipation, reflux, stomachaches, eczema, extreme picky eating. You have already been told to add fiber and water and wait it out.
A folder full of normal labs
Results from several specialists, each showing a glimpse, none of it ever put together. You still do not know what to do next.
Sleep that never comes easily
A child who cannot fall asleep, stirs all night, or is wide awake at two in the morning. Nobody in the house has been rested in a long time.
Wondering if it's in their genes
You want to know why your child reacts to things other kids tolerate. Why a supplement that helped others made yours worse.
A child who changed drastically
Sudden OCD, rage, food refusal, urinary changes, or handwriting that fell apart. The change was fast enough that you can nearly name the week.
Symptoms that started with the house
A move, a leak, a basement, a smell. Your child has not been the same since, and the timing bothers you.
THE FOUNDATIONS
The Foundational Five come first
Sleep. Airway. Nutrition. Hydration. Movement and why I keep coming back to these five. I talk about these with every family, every visit, because if they are not in place none of the rest of it matters much.
Keep reading on the blog: how telehealth across state lines actually works.
They are also the part that costs nothing. Getting screens and lights out of the bedroom, holding a predictable routine, adding protein and healthy fats, feeding regularly enough that blood sugar stays steady. Parents can start on all of that today without booking anything.
Functional testing comes after the foundations, not instead of them. Targeted supplements come after that, and only when the testing says a specific child actually needs them.
YOUR CARE TEAM
Will you work with our pediatrician?
Yes. Always. Keep your pediatrician. Keep your therapists. Keep your specialists. What I do is complementary to that work and was never designed to replace it.
Speech therapy, occupational therapy and ABA are doing something I cannot do. What I can do is address the folate metabolism, the mitochondrial support, the gut inflammation and the nutrient gaps underneath, so that the therapy your child is already getting has more to work with.
I am also a prescriber, which means medication management is part of the conversation rather than something happening in a different building. And when your child needs a specialty I do not have, I say so and help you get there.
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THE DIFFERENCE
What makes this different from every appointment you have already had?
Functional medicine gets a bad reputation in some corners, and some of it is earned. A practice layers twenty or thirty supplements onto a child at once and then nobody has any idea what is helping and what is making things worse. That is not care. That is noise.
I work in phases. Gut first, and specifically what the testing says that gut is asking for. Once that is in a good place, we move on. Things get layered out as often as they get layered in.
There is also no contract. You are signing up for me, and I want you to be happy. What I will ask in return is that the plan actually gets carried out at home, because I can tell you everything I know and it only goes so far if it stays on paper. This is collaborative. You have real equity in how it turns out.
Bring me the folder, the history, and the thing you have been trying to get someone to take seriously.
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.
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.
LAST WORDS
Every child is unique and every family's journey is different. Developmental and behavioral challenges are not about what is wrong with your child. They are about understanding what your child truly needs.
My goal is simple. Help your child feel better in their own body and thrive to whatever capacity that means for them. Every question parents ask before booking
With you in this, Amy
Amy Patton, DNP, APRN, CPNP-PC · Happy Kid Functional Medicine