Enteral and parenteral nutrition in pediatric patients: Main clinical indications and the fundamental role of artificial nutrition to avoid malnutrition

Nutritional support in children is essential when they are unable to assume an adequate oral caloric intake for growth and survival. Artificial nutrition can be delivered by the enteral or parenteral route, essentially depending on the functioning gut. The main pathologic conditions in which artificial nutrition is required in children are the following: intestinal failure, in which the intestinal function may be lost due to different causes; critical illness in which prolonged metabolic stress due to the underling pathology leads to malnutrition; and pediatric cancer in which cachexia and chemotherapy represent the main risks for children's health. The common goals in all these conditions are to prevent malnutrition and to preserve a good nutritional status, and the means to achieve that is artificial nutrition. © 2010 SINPE-GASAPE.