Background Nutritional support is considered essential for the outcome of paediatric critical illness. There is a lack of methodologically sound trials to provide evidence-based guidelines leading to diverse practices in PICUs worldwide. Acknowledging these limitations, we aimed to summarize the available literature and provide practical guidance for the paediatric critical care clinicians around important clinical questions many of which are not covered by previous guidelines. Objective To provide an ESPNIC position statement and make clinical recommendations for the assessment and nutritional support in critically ill infants and children. Design The metabolism, endocrine and nutrition (MEN) section of the European Society of Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care (ESPNIC) generated 15 clinical questions regarding different aspects of nutrition in critically ill children. After a systematic literature search, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) grading system was applied to assess the quality of the evidence, conducting meta-analyses where possible, to generate statements and clinical recommendations, which were then voted on electronically. Strong consensus (> 95% agreement) and consensus (> 75% agreement) on these statements and recommendations was measured through modified Delphi voting rounds. Results The final 15 clinical questions generated a total of 7261 abstracts, of which 142 publications were identified relevant to develop 32 recommendations. A strong consensus was reached in 21 (66%) and consensus was reached in 11 (34%) of the recommendations. Only 11 meta-analyses could be performed on 5 questions. Conclusions We present a position statement and clinical practice recommendations. The general level of evidence of the available literature was low. We have summarised this and provided a practical guidance for the paediatric critical care clinicians around important clinical questions.

Objective: Poor growth is a common complication in infants with congenital heart disease. There has been much focus on low birth weight as having increased risk of adverse outcomes following neonatal heart surgery. In this study, we examined whether preoperative nutritional status, measured by admission weight-for-age z score, was associated with postoperative clinical outcome. Design: Retrospective case series. Setting: Pediatric Cardiac ICU at the Royal Brompton Hospital. Patients: Neonates undergoing surgery for congenital heart disease. Those undergoing ductus arteriosus ligation alone were excluded. Children with coexisting noncardiac morbidity were excluded. Outcome variables included prevalence of postoperative complications (including sepsis, delayed chest closure, renal impairment, and necrotizing enterocolitis), duration of ventilation, intensive care stay, postoperative mortality, and mortality at 1 year after surgery. Interventions: None. Analysis of patient data only. Measurements and Main Results: Two hundred forty-eight neonates fulfilled the entry criteria. Median (interquartile range) age was 7 days (2–15 d), median (interquartile range) weight was 3.3 kg (2.91–3.6 kg), and median weight-for-age z score was –0.77 (–1.44 to 0.01). Twenty-eight children (11%) had a weight-for-age z score of less than –2. There was no evidence that children with lower weight-for-age z score had less severe surgery as measured by the Risk Adjustment for Congenital Heart Surgery 1 score. In multivariable regression analysis, the weight-for-age z at admission had strong correlation with the number of days free of respiratory support (invasive and noninvasive ventilation) at 28 days (p < 0.0001) and with all-cause mortality at 1 year (p = 0.001). Conclusions: Poor nutritional status as measured by weight-for-age z is associated with adverse short- and long-term outcomes in neonates undergoing surgery for congenital heart disease.

The relationship between infant feeding patterns and the later development of food allergies has been the focus of much debate and research over the last decade. National recommendations have been made by many countries on how to feed infants to reduce the risk of food allergy but due to the lack of firm evidence the recommendations differ widely. This review has been developed as part of EuroPrevall, a European multicentre research project funded by the European Union, to document the differing feeding recommendations made across Europe, to investigate the current evidence base for any allergy prevention feeding recommendations and to identify areas where further research is needed. This review will also provide information which, when combined with the infant feeding data collected as part of EuroPrevall, will give an indication of compliance to national feeding guidelines which can be utilised to assess the effectiveness of current dissemination and implementation strategies.

Purpose Intravenous maintenance fluid therapy (IV-MFT) prescribing in acute and critically ill children is very variable among pediatric health care professionals. In order to provide up to date IV-MFT guidelines, the European Society of Pediatric and Neonatal Intensive Care (ESPNIC) undertook a systematic review to answer the following five main questions about IV-MFT: (i) the indications for use (ii) the role of isotonic fluid (iii) the role of balanced solutions (iv) IV fluid composition (calcium, magnesium, potassium, glucose and micronutrients) and v) and the optimal amount of fluid. Methods A multidisciplinary expert group within ESPNIC conducted this systematic review using the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) grading method. Five databases were searched for studies that answered these questions, in acute and critically children (from 37 weeks gestational age to 18 years), published until November 2020. The quality of evidence and risk of bias were assessed, and meta-analyses were undertaken when appropriate. A series of recommendations was derived and voted on by the expert group to achieve consensus through two voting rounds. Results 56 papers met the inclusion criteria, and 16 recommendations were produced. Outcome reporting was inconsistent among studies. Recommendations generated were based on a heterogeneous level of evidence, but consensus within the expert group was high. “Strong consensus” was reached for 11/16 (69%) and “consensus” for 5/16 (31%) of the recommendations. Conclusions Key recommendations are to use isotonic balanced solutions providing glucose to restrict IV-MFT infusion volumes in most hospitalized children and to regularly monitor plasma electrolyte levels, serum glucose and fluid balance.

Infants with congenital heart disease (CHD) often experience growth failure prior to surgery, which is associated with increased paediatric-intensive-care unit length of stay (PICU-LOS) and post-operative complications. This study assessed the impact of a pre-operative, consensus-based nutritional pathway (including support from a multi-disciplinary team) on growth and clinical outcome. Single-centre prospective pilot study. Tertiary paediatric cardiology surgical centre. Infants with CHD. Infants with CHD were followed for up to 4-months-of-age before cardiac surgery and then to 12-months-of-age following the implementation of the consensus-based nutritional-pathway (Intervention group: November 2017-August 2018), with outcomes compared to a historic control group. The nutrition pathway involved a dietitian contacting parents of infants with the highest risk of growth failure weekly; reviewing weight gain and providing feeding support. Growth (weight-for-age, WAZ, and height-for-age-z-score, HAZ) at 4 and 12 months-of-age. 44 infants in the intervention group were compared to 38 in the control group. Median (inter quartile range) change in WAZ from birth to 4 months-of-age (-0.9 (-1.5, 0.7)) and from birth to 12 months-of-age (-0.09 (-1.3, 1.1)) in the intervention group compared to the control group (-1.5 (-2.0, -0.4) (p = 0.04)) at 4 months-of age and at 12 months-of-age (-0.4 (1.9, 0.2) (p = 0.03)). HAZ at 4 months-of-age was -0.7 (-1.4, -0.1) vs. -1.0 (-1.9, -0.3) (p = 0.6) in the intervention and control groups respectively, and at 12 months-of-age HAZ was -0.7 (-1.9, -0.07) in the intervention group vs.-1.6 (-2.6, -0.4) in the control group (p = 0.04). Duration of PICU-LOS was 8.2 ± 11.6 days intervention vs. 18.3 ± 24.0 days control (p = 0.006). Overall weight was well maintained and growth improved in infants who followed the pre-operative nutritional-pathway. The duration of PICU-LOS was significantly lower in the intervention group, which may be due to improved nutritional status, although this requires further investigation.