A new service at Akron Children's Hospital is literally just what sick and injured youngsters ordered.

The pediatric hospital recently launched an on-demand, food-service program that lets patients (or their parents) choose from a kid-friendly menu to order food that's delivered to their room within 45 minutes. The restaurant-style menu features plenty of youngsters' favorite foods, such as bologna sandwiches, chicken tenders and nuggets, grilled cheese, macaroni and cheese, soft pretzels and even milkshakes and blue raspberry or cherry Slushies.

Kids can place orders anytime they get hungry from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

''When you're dealing with children, comfort foods are what they want,'' said Donna-Marie Fleck, a registered dietitian and director of support services at Children's. ''When you have a sick child, you don't sit there and say, 'Eat your peas.' You say, 'What would make you feel better?' ''

Getting children to eat and drink while hospitalized often is a crucial step toward their return home, Fleck said. ''Our goal is to make the child feel better,'' she said. ''A lot of times, they're not allowed to leave the hospital until they're eating and drinking.''

That's not always easy, especially with picky young eaters.

Traditionally, food options were limited during hospital stays. Patients got a card and selected from two or three entrees for their next day's meal. Trays then were delivered all at the same time, regardless of when the patient was hungry.

''You ordered today for tomorrow,'' Fleck said. ''It was always a day behind.''

But an increasing number of hospitals nationwide are abandoning that old institutional, one-size-fits-all approach to meals and offering patients more choices.

Faced with increased competition and more demanding health-care consumers, hospitals have been beefing up their food-service programs in the past decade.

For example, Akron's adult hospitals — Akron General Medical Center and Summa Health System's City and St. Thomas hospitals — already have been offering a room-service program for patients whenever appropriate for several years.

Plenty of choices

Today's hospital menus often rival hotel room service, with plenty of main dishes, a la carte and dessert choices. But unlike hotels, hospitals don't charge patients extra for food, even with these expanded menus. The Children's Room Service Dining program offers breakfast foods all day, as well as create-your-own sandwiches, salads, pizzas and 17 main dishes. The featured vegetables are those that tend to be favored by children — things such as broccoli with cheese sauce, carrots and corn.

The pediatric hospital spent about $50,000 on new kitchen equipment and software to switch to the new food-service program.

But the new system ultimately should save money by reducing the amount of wasted food, Fleck said.

Brian Bjorklund, executive chef at Children's, said food service workers already are noticing less food left on patients' trays.

''Far less food is going into the trash can,'' he said. ''It's taking a little more work, but the kids are eating it.''

Michelle Tanner also noticed the difference during her daughter's recent hospital stay.

Ashton Tanner, 17, is hospitalized at Children's at least twice a year because of complications from cystic fibrosis.

Before the new Room Service Dining program started last month, Ashton ate about a quarter of the food on her tray, her mother said.

But now?

''She's eating it all,'' her mother said. ''She can pick pretty much whatever she wants. She loves the Slushies.''

When they're ready to order, patients or their parents or guardian call a Room Service operator, who pulls the patients' information up on a computer screen.

The computer system coordinates the order and alerts food service workers if a patient tries to order something that's not on their diet. If a child has food allergies, for example, all restricted items appear in red on the screen so the operator knows those items are off limits.

Most patients are good about selecting balanced meals, said Kara Reymann, a food service nutrition assistant.

But, of course, kids will be kids.

''One patient I had ordered a doughnut, an ice cream sandwich and a milkshake,'' she said, laughing.

For those who try to select all nonhealthy options, Reymann and the other operators gently suggest adding some more healthful foods, which are marked with a heart on the menus.