Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 26, 2025
Scanning Skeletal Remains for Bone Mineral Density in Forensic Contexts
Published on: January 29, 2018
Nutritional rehabilitation of malnourished children: are nutritional supplements a must?
Ehab Khairy Emam1, May Fouad Nassar1, Mohamed Farouk Allam2
1Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
Insights
Pediatric nutritional screening identifies at-risk children. Nutritional intervention improves health, with supplements offering superior outcomes for weight, BMI, and hemoglobin in children.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Nutrition
- Public Health
- Clinical Research
Background:
- Malnutrition poses a significant global threat to child health.
- Early identification and intervention are crucial for pediatric well-being.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the role of nutritional screening in children.
- To evaluate the effectiveness of a nutritional intervention program.
- To determine the added benefit of nutritional supplements.
Main Methods:
- Screening Tool for the Assessment of Malnutrition in Pediatrics (STAMP) used on 3640 children (2-5 years).
- 100 high-risk children received tailored dietary plans, with 50 getting supplements (Group A) and 50 receiving advice only (Group B).
- Anthropometric measurements, lab tests, and STAMP scores were reassessed post-intervention.
Main Results:
- Nutritional screening identified 5.14% of children at high risk.
- Both groups improved in caloric intake and anthropometrics (excluding height z-scores).
- Group A (with supplements) showed significantly better improvements in weight, BMI, caloric intake, and hemoglobin compared to Group B.
Conclusions:
- Pediatric nutritional screening enables timely rehabilitation, improving overall health.
- Tailored nutritional plans effectively enhance caloric intake, anthropometrics, and lab parameters.
- Nutritional supplements enhance rehabilitation outcomes, ensuring superior goal achievement.
Objective:
Malnutrition threatens children worldwide. The objective of the current study was to highlight the role of nutritional screening, evaluate the effectiveness of nutritional intervention program, and whether nutritional supplements have surplus benefit.
Patients And Methods:
Screening Tool for the Assessment of Malnutrition in Pediatrics (STAMP) was used to screen 3640 clinically stable 2-5 years old children recruited from the outpatient clinics, Children's Hospital, Ain Shams University. A total of 100 patients at high risk of malnutrition were enrolled. Full nutritional assessment was done and according to the distribution of the calories in the daily meal plan, the patients were randomly divided into two groups each comprised 50 patients. Group A received tailored nutritional dietary rehabilitation plan including dietary supplements, while Group B received only dietary advice. Anthropometric measurements, laboratory tests, as well as STAMP scoring were reassessed after the nutritional rehabilitation programs.
Results:
Nutritional screening revealed that 5.14% were at high risk of malnutrition. Both studied groups showed significant improvement in caloric intake and all anthropometric measurements upon nutritional rehabilitation, except for the height z scores. Patients who received nutritional supplements showed significantly better changes regarding weight, BMI, caloric intake, and hemoglobin. Regarding STAMP categories during follow up, Group A had only 6% of the patients still in the high-risk category and 76% were at low risk compared to 14% high risk and only 54% were at low risk in Group B.
Conclusions:
Nutritional screening in pediatric outpatient facilities can lead to implementing prompt nutritional rehabilitation, which can reflect on the patients' overall health. Tailored nutritional plan can accomplish good response in terms of improvement of caloric intake, anthropometric measurements and laboratory parameters. Adding a nutritional supplement to the dietary plan during nutritional rehabilitation isn't a must but it ensures superior goal achievement.
Related Concept Videos
01:15Enteral Nutrition II: Nasointestinal and Gastrostomy Feeding
Nasointestinal Feeding
Nasointestinal feeding involves placing a tube...
01:28Chronic Kidney Disease III: Interprofessional Care
01:28Proteins: Dietary Sources and Requirements
01:26Enteral Nutrition I: Orogastric and Nasogastric Feeding
Orogastric (OG) and nasogastric (NG) feeding are two standard methods used for enteral nutrition. Enteral nutrition is often preferred over...
01:30Inflammatory Bowel Disease III: Diagnostic Studies and Management I-Nutritional Therapy
Diagnostic studies
A colonoscopy is the definitive screening test, distinguishing ulcerative colitis from other colon diseases with similar symptoms. During a colonoscopy test, inflamed mucosa with exudate ulcerations can be observed, and biopsies are taken to determine the histologic characteristics of the...
01:21Overview of Protein Metabolism
Amino acids play various roles in the body once they are absorbed into cells. They are restructured...