Journal of Clinical Pediatrics >
Clinical challenges and research progress in nutritional support for children with anorexia nervosa
Received date: 2025-12-10
Accepted date: 2026-02-12
Online published: 2026-05-08
Anorexia nervosa(AN) is an eating disorder characterized by the deliberate maintenance of low body weight,with both low diagnosis rate and low standardized treatment rate. Patients with long-term malnutrition are prone to severe multisystem complications, and nutritional support is the core component of their treatment. Currently, two regimens are predominantly applied in clinical nutritional support: the traditional low-calorie refeeding and high-calorie refeeding. Among them, the high-calorie refeeding regimen not only shortens the length of hospital stay and reduces medical costs, but also does not increase the risk of refeeding syndrome. However, the applicability of this regimen in children with severe malnutrition and its long-term effects require further exploration. Regarding the nutritional support regimens for children with AN, particularly the initial calorie intake regimen, there is still no unified consensus internationally. In view of this, this paper systematically reviews the nutritional assessment tools, nutritional support strategies, and key points for the prevention of refeeding syndrome in children with AN. Studies have shown that the adoption of multidimensional integrated assessment can effectively improve the accuracy of nutritional evaluation.
WANG Lihui , MA Ming . Clinical challenges and research progress in nutritional support for children with anorexia nervosa[J]. Journal of Clinical Pediatrics, 2026 , 44(5) : 478 -484 . DOI: 10.12372/jcp.2026.25e1559
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