Contribution of experimental studies on the nutritional management of children with chronic renal failure

A few of the many reports of experimental chronic renal failure have been summarized. Anorexia and food selection have been studied in experimental uremia and the findings are comparable with those observed in uraemic children. The optimal dietary protein content for growth is close to the minimal requirement for "optimal" growth. Protein excess leads to growth retardation and renal deterioration in uraemic rats, at least with the commonly used dry diets. The increased water requirement may be more critical for growth than the blood urea level or acidosis, although this requires further investigation. Reduction of the dietary protein by 50% and supplementation with essential amino acids (EAA) results in growth similar to that of the 100% protein diet. There is no growth improvement despite low blood urea levels, but the renal parenchymal is preserved. Supplementation with nitrogen-free analogues is more frequently associated with defective growth; the optimal mixture remains to be defined, and to date, when nutrition is identical, nitrogen-free analogues offer no benefit for renal preservation compared with EAA. Sucrose-rich diets have adverse effects on uraemia. These effects are associated with fructose intolerance and with reduced energy storage in the liver. The precise metabolic alteration remains to be defined.