Context

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.