Nutritional Support and Fluid Management Flashcards
Which of the following statements is true regarding daily fluid requirements?
A. Premature infants weighing less than 2 kg require only up to 80 mL/kg per day of fluid.
B. Neonates and infants weighing 2 to 10 kg require 200 mL/kg per day of fluid.
C. Infants and children weighing 10 to 20 kg require 1000 mL/day plus 50 mL/kg per day of fluid for every kilogram over 10 kg.
D. Children heavier than 20 kg require 1500 mL/day plus 30 mL/kg per day of fluid for every kilogram over 20 kg.
E. All of the above.
ANSWER: C
COMMENTS: Infants weighing less than 1500 g require 130 to 150 mL/kg per day of fluid.
Those weighing 1500 to 2000 g require 110 to 130 mL/kg per day,
2 to 10 kg require 100 mL/kg per day,
10 to 20 kg require 1000 mL for the first 10 kg and an additional 50 mL/kg for each additional kilogram, and
those weighing more than 20 kg require 1500 mL plus 20 mL/kg for each additional kilogram over 20 kg.
Daily electrolyte requirements include sodium at 2 to 5 mEq/kg and potassium at 2 to 3 mEq/kg.
Dextrose is administered to provide a glucose substrate at a minimum rate of 4 to 6 mg/kg/min.
Fat infusions are started at 0.5 g/kg per day and advanced up to 2.5 to 3 g/kg per day.
Protein requirements are 2 to 3.5 g/kg per day in infants, as opposed to requirements of about 1 g/kg per day in adults.
(Rush Review of Surgery 6th Edition)
What is the daily energy requirement for an 8-month-old healthy baby?
A. 90 to 120 kcal/kg
B. 80 to 100 kcal/kg
C. 75 to 90 kcal/kg
D. 50 to 75 kcal/kg
E. 30 to 50 kcal/kg
ANSWER: B
COMMENTS: Energy requirements are important to consider in the pediatric population.
For premature infants, 90 to 120 kcal/kg are required.
Infants <6 months of age require 85 to 105 kcal/kg,
6 to 12 months require 80 to 100 kcal/kg,
1 to 7 years require 75 to 90 kcal/kg,
7 to 12 years require 50 to 75 kcal/kg,
and >12 years up until 18 years of age require 30 to 50 kcal/kg.
Periods of active growth have higher caloric requirements.
Breast milk provides 0.64 to 0.67 kcal/mL.
When feasible, it is advisable that children have breast milk until 1 year of age. Breast milk additionally helps provide passive immunity with the transmission of both humoral and cellular factors to the baby.
However, breast milk must be supplemented with vitamin D to prevent vitamin D deficiency that is often seen in breastfed infants.
(Rush Review of Surgery 6th Edition)
Total body water of a newborn?
75-80%
During the first week of life, TBW decreases by 4-5%, which is reflected as a normal loss in body weight.
(Pediatric Surgery Secrets)
What is the risk of fluid overload in preterm infants?
Preterm infants with an excess of total body fluids have an increased incidence of:
Patient ductus arteriosus
Left ventricular failure
Respiratory distress syndrome
Necrotizing enterocolitis.
(Pediatric Surgery Secrets)
How does renal fluid physiology differ in newborns and adults?
GFR of the term newborn is 25% of that of an adult.
The GFR rises rapidly during the first week of life and slowly increases to adult levels by 2 years of age.
Despite this low-GFR, the newborn can handle large water loads, because the newborn kidney has a low concentrating capacity.
(Pediatric Surgery Secrets)
What is deficit fluid therapy?
Deficit fluid therapy refers to the management of the fluid losses that occurred before the patient’s presentation.
Deficit therapy has two essential components:
1) An accurate estimation of the severity of dehydration
2) Development of an approach to repair the deficit
(Pediatric Surgery Secrets)
What are the typical signs of dehydration in a child?
The severity of dehydration is estimated from the patient’s history and physical condition.
No single piece of laboratory data can predict the severity of dehydration.
In children with mild dehydration (1-5% total body fluid volume), the usual history is 12-24 hours of vomiting and diarrhea with minimal findings on exam.
Children with moderate dehydration (6-10%) have a history of abnormal fluid losses plus physical findings that include tenting of the skin, weight loss, sunken eyes and fontanel, slight lethargy, and dry mucous membranes.
With severe dehydration (11-15%), the patient develops skin mottling, cardiovascular instability (tachycardia, hypotension), and neurologic involvement (irritability, coma).
Dehydration over a protracted period may be more severe than is clinically evident.
(Pediatric Surgery Secrets)
What are the typical maintenance fluid requirements for a child?
Newborn day 1:
50-60 ml/kg/day of D10W
Newborn day 2:
100 ml/kg/day of D10 1/4NS
Newborn day >7:
100-150 ml/kg/day of D5-10 1/4NS
Older child (0 - 10 kg): 100 ml/kg/day (4 ml/kg/hr)
Older child (10 - 20 kg): 1000 ml/day + 50 ml/kg/day (40 ml/hr + 2 ml/kg/hr)
Older child (>20 kg): 1500 ml/day + 25 ml/kg/day (60 ml/hr + 1 ml/kg/hr)
(Pediatric Surgery Secrets)
How do normal fluid requirements (losses) change for the sick infant?
Normal fluid losses are composed of two parts:
(1) evaporative losses (33% of total losses) and
(2) urinary losses (66% of total losses).
Evaporative losses are free water losses through the skin and lungs and are used for thermal regulation and to humidify inspired air.
The ambient humidity and temperature affect the magnitude of evaporate losses, and patients receiving humidified air have a reduction in fluid requirements.
Similarly, patients with hyperthermia or tachypnea have exaggerated evaporative losses.
Urinary losses are affected by various conditions.
Infants with diabetes insipidus and premature infants have an obligatory production of dilute urine, and appropriate increases in the volume of maintenance fluids must be made.
In conditions of excessive secretion of antidiuretic hormone or physiologic stress, the patient may not be able to decrease urine osmolality, and the volume of fluids must be decreased.
(Pediatric Surgery Secrets)
What is the typical dehydration of a child with pyloric stenosis?
Dehydration with pyloric stenosis is based on loss of both fluid and electrolytes, with large losses of hydrogen and chloride ions from gastric secretions.
The degree of dehydration can be estimated by physical exam and serum electrolytes.
After progressive acid and fluid losses, the child develops hypokalemic, hypochloremic metabolic alkalosis.
The degree of dehydration can be estimated by serum chloride and bicarbonate levels.
(Pediatric Surgery Secrets)
Explain paradoxical aciduria.
In children with severe dehydration, the urine pH often demonstrates a paradoxical aciduria, because the renal mechanisms for acid resorption are lost in an attempt to retain both sodium and potassium ions.
The deficit in renal acid resorption contributes to metabolic alkalosis, and this cycle can be broken only by adequate fluid and electrolyte replacement.
Surgery for pyloric stenosis should be deferred until the child is adequately rehydrated.
(Pediatric Surgery Secrets)
How many calories does a newborn infant require?
Most term infants are fed 90-120 kcal/kg/day.
Increased calories are necessary in newborns with increased metabolic demands (e.g., prematurity, increased work of breathing, congenital heart disease).
The overall best measure of adequate caloric support is weight gain (goal of 1%/day).
Gavage feeds may be necessary in tachypneic infants.
(Pediatric Surgery Secrets)
How do you pick the right food for the right baby?
In general, breast milk is the best choice for most infants.
When breast milk is not available, standard formulas (e.g., Enfamil, Similac) are the cheapest, most widely available alternatives and should be used unless there are other concerns.
Premature infants require a special premature formulation.
Soy formulas (e.g., Prosoybee, Isomil) are lactose-free and use soy for the protein source; they are used for infants who are intolerant of milk protein (with malabsorptive symptoms).
Elemental formulas (e.g., Nutramigen, Pregestimil) are lactose-free and have predigested proteins (hydrolyzed casein); they are used for infants with malabsorption, short bowel, and cystic fibrosis.
(Pediatric Surgery Secrets)
What are the major components of total parenteral nutrition?
When possible, enteral feeds are preferable to total parenteral nutrition (TPN).
TPN provides fluids, calories (in the form of carbohydrates and fat), electrolytes, and protein.
Each of these components must be structured carefully for the child requiring parenteral nutrition.
(Pediatric Surgery Secrets)
How should you monitor a child on TPN?
As the child begins TPN, hyperglycemia is poorly tolerated and requires a reduction in glucose infusion: Routine electrolytes, lipid levels, and liver function tests are mandatory.
The major risk to long-term TPN use is cholestatic liver failure.
(Pediatric Surgery Secrets)
What risk is associated with overfeeding a sick child?
Overfeeding calories or substrate in excess of metabolic demands may result in respiratory compromise, hepatic dysfunction, and an increased risk of dying from a particular condition.
(Pediatric Surgery Secrets)
How do energy stores in the body alter with age?
Energy stores are only adequate for ~2 days at 24–25 weeks gestation, increase to ~20 days at term as glycogen and fat stores increase and are in excess of 50 days in the adult, hence the urgent need for adequate caloric intake in preterm infants after birth.
Full-term neonates have higher content of endogenous fat (approximately 600 g) and therefore can tolerate a few days of undernutrition.
(Pearls & Tricks in Pediatric Surgery)
What is the optimum nutritional route for infants?
The optimum nutritional route is oral enteral feeding. However, artificial enteral feeding or parenteral nutrition (PN) may be required if adequate oral feeds cannot be tolerated.
The basic principle underlying choice of feeding routes is that the most physiological route that is safely possible should be used: oral preferred over tube feeding, gastric feeds are preferred over jejunal feeds, enteral feeds are preferred over parenteral feeds etc.
(Pearls & Tricks in Pediatric Surgery)
How should the nutrition of surgical infants and children be monitored?
Effectiveness of nutrition should be assessed.
Growth of all paediatric surgical patients, especially those receiving artificial nutritional support, should be monitored longitudinally using appropriate charts.
Although measurement of weight, height/length, and head circumference is important, it is essential that these are monitored serially, and plotted on centile charts, which are often available on a national basis, or if not, are available from the World Health Organization.
It is especially important to also consider hydration, as over- or under- hydration can be an important contributor to weight change.
(Pearls & Tricks in Pediatric Surgery)
Why can’t premature infants be fed orally?
The swallowing reflex is not fully developed in premature infants so they should be fed by naso- or orogastric tubes until the swallowing reflex is developed and it is safe to give oral feeds.
(Pearls & Tricks in Pediatric Surgery)
Why are gastric enteral feeds preferred over jejunal feeds?
Gastric feeding is preferable to intestinal feeding because it allows for a more natural and complete digestive process i.e. allows action of salivary and gastric enzymes and the antibacterial action of stomach acid, in addition to the use of the stomach as a reservoir.
Gastric feeding is associated with a larger osmotic and volume tolerance and a lower frequency of diarrhea and dumping syndrome.
Thus, transpyloric feeds are usually restricted to infants or children who are either unable to tolerate naso- or oro- gastric feeds, at increased risk of aspiration; or who have anatomical contra-indications to gastric feeds.
(Pearls & Tricks in Pediatric Surgery)
Why is long-term nasogastric or orogastric feeding not recommended?
In infants requiring gastric tube feeding for extended periods (e.g. more than 6–8 weeks) it is advisable to insert a gastrostomy, to decrease the negative oral stimulation of repeated insertion of nasal or oral tubes.
(Pearls & Tricks in Pediatric Surgery)
When should cow’s milk protein allergy be considered?
Cow’s milk protein allergy can be acute (IgE-mediated) or delayed (non-IgE medi- ated).
Gastrointestinal symptoms are usually present (reflux, colic, constipation etc.), and intolerance in the absence of anatomical reasons may be a manifestation of Cow’s milk protein allergy.
It can be present even in exclusively breast-fed infants, as bovine antigens may be passed from the mother.
(Pearls & Tricks in Pediatric Surgery)
What are the advantages of minimal enteral (trophic) feeding?
Minimal feeds may prevent gut mucosal atrophy, increase intestinal blood flow, improve activity of digestive enzymes and thus ‘prime’ the gut for subsequent higher volume, nutritive feeds.
In addition, oral stimulation may prevent later oral aversion.
(Pearls & Tricks in Pediatric Surgery)