Nutritional Problems of Hospitalized Children

Overview

Objective:
To summarize modern approaches as regards nutrition of hospitalized children from the aspect ofpresent knowledge and results of the authors’ own investigation. The dietary system which can be provided tohospitalized children was therefore studied.Results: Repeated assessment of the nutritional status of hospitalized patients revealed frequently significantdeviations of their nutritional status in relation to their disease. This suggests that during the diagnostic andtherapeutic process of child patients adequate attention is not paid to the nutritional status. The investigation of1997 - 1998 provided results on the hospital diet of children in theCR and differences between smaller departmentsand larger hospitals. It revealed e.g. that the trend of promotion of the importance of a nutritious diet in the FacultyHospital Motol increased from 0.1% in 1981 to 9.0% in 1997. In 2002 an investigation of dietary habits of childrenhospitalized in the paediatric department of Motol hospital was made which proved that 2/3 of the children alreadywhen completely recovered refused some dietary constituents. At the time of their illness before admission tohospital 41.7% children had loss of appetite in their history and this persisted in ca 10% during hospitalization.Based on the assessed facts the author suggests to introduce a scoring system for evaluation of the nutritional riskof hospitalized patients according to an adopted and further modified model from other investigations. In theconclusion the author summarizes some of his own experience assembled at the First Paediatric Clinic withnutritional care of patients after discharge from hospital. Special attention is paid to long-term domiciliaryparenteral nutrition which is the main part of treatment of some serious chronic diseases.

Key words:
dietary history, nutritional status, factor of nutritional risk, nutritional intervention, therapeuticdiet, clinical nutrition, domiciliary parenteral nutrition