Pediatric Critical Care Nutrition

The provision of optimal nutrition to the critically ill child,
to offset the catabolic effects of the illness or injury and to
enhance clinical outcomes, is an important objective for
healthcare providers. The last decade has seen a resurgence
in interest in this area of critical care, with an increasing
number of research publications and consensus documents. The field of critical care nutrition has evolved, and
clear associations between bedside nutrient delivery and
outcomes have been demonstrated. Nutrition delivery is
no longer just supportive care, but it is now recognized as
an important therapy with nutrients that can modulate disease. Despite the enthusiasm and the explosion in research
on the subject, there are many unanswered questions, and
the quest for best practices remains elusive, especially in
the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU). The individual
practitioner—the trainee, the intensivist, the dietitian, the
nurse—is left with a number of practical questions on the
nutritional management of the individual child in the PICU.