Adequate enteral feeding in the pediatric intensive care unit may be associated with fewer nosocomial infections and deaths

Commentary on: Mehta NM, Bechard LJ, Cahill N, et al. Nutritional practices and their relationship to clinical outcomes in critically ill children: an international multicenter cohort study. Crit Care Med 2012; 40: 2204– 11.[OpenUrl][1][CrossRef][2][PubMed][3][Web of Science][4] Adequate nutritional support is a keystone to prevent vulnerable critically ill children from becoming undernourished. However, there is often a marked discrepancy in prescribed and delivered energy and protein intake. Several barriers explaining these inadequate nutritional practices have been identified. Consequently, cumulative energy and protein deficits develop, which result in anthropometric deterioration as shown in a cohort of 293 paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) patients.1 So far, multicentre studies describing nutritional practices in PICUs in large cohorts of critically ill children have been lacking and the association between nutritional practices and clinical outcome has not been described. In a prospective multicentre cohort study, Mehta and colleagues studied nutritional practices in 500 children admitted into 31 participating PICUs. This study … [1]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DCritical%2Bcare%2Bmedicine%26rft.stitle%253DCrit%2BCare%2BMed%26rft.aulast%253DMehta%26rft.auinit1%253DN.%2BM.%26rft.volume%253D40%26rft.issue%253D7%26rft.spage%253D2204%26rft.epage%253D2211%26rft.atitle%253DNutritional%2Bpractices%2Band%2Btheir%2Brelationship%2Bto%2Bclinical%2Boutcomes%2Bin%2Bcritically%2Bill%2Bchildren--an%2Binternational%2Bmulticenter%2Bcohort%2Bstudy%2A.%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.1097%252FCCM.0b013e31824e18a8%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F22564954%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [2]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=10.1097/CCM.0b013e31824e18a8&link_type=DOI [3]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=22564954&link_type=MED&atom=%2Febmed%2F18%2F4%2F151.atom [4]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=000305767800026&link_type=ISI