Center for Inflammatory Bowel Disease Treatment and Research

Who we are

The Center for Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Treatment and Research at Boston Children's Hospital is a leading referral center for pediatric IBD. We are committed to improving the health of children and teens with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. We also are actively working to discover the causes of and improve the treatments for IBD.

Patient care

Our patient care team includes gastroenterologists, surgeons, radiologists, nurses, nutritionists, social workers and psychologists with expertise in the care of patients with IBD.  We routinely care for children who are referred from other hospitals with difficult to treat disease.  Our state-of-the-art group uses cutting-edge treatments to help get the disease under control and to improve the health of our patients.

Family education

Our patients and families routinely meet with a team of educators after diagnosis to learn about the disease and the treatments.  We give our patients a comprehensive packet of written information. We also have developed instructional DVDs for children and their families learning to cope with IBD. In addition, Children's IBD Experience Journal is a collection of stories, pictures, and personal experiences from families about what it has been like to live with pediatric IBD.

Research and innovation

Physicians and scientists in our center work hand in hand to identify the causes of IBD, and to develop new treatments for our patients. Basic research focuses on the genetics of IBD, how bacteria affect the intestines of IBD patients, and how patients with IBD have altered immune systems. Clinical research examines the use of new medications, the study of how children with IBD respond to immunizations, and the development of noninvasive methods of diagnosis. Our patients often participate in many of these studies and clinical trials.