The incidence of malnutrition in hospitalized children is high, and nutritional risk screening for hospitalized children is important for timely and appropriate nutritional therapy. The current nutritional risk screening tools for pediatric inpatient include subjective global nutritional risk assessment (SGNA), simple pediatric nutritional risk score (PNRS), screening tool for the assessment of malnutrition in pediatrics (STAMP), screening tool for risk of impaired nutritional status and growth (STRONG-kids), pediatric Yorkhill malnutrition score (PYMS), pediatric nutrition screening tool (PNST) and pediatric digital scaled malnutrition risk screening tool (PeDiSMART). All kinds of screening tools have their own advantages and disadvantages. Further studies are needed to find a simple, rapid and reliable screening tool. This article reviews the application of various nutritional risk screening tools for hospitalized children in recent years.