Introduction:

Hospital malnutrition is the result of the conjugation between nutritional alterations generated by the underlying pathology and nutritional risk factors given by hospitalization. It is one of the main complications and the main cause of increased morbidity and mortality in pediatric intensive care units.

Objective:

To describe the nutritional status and nutritional support strategies used in a pediatric intensive care unit.

Materials and Methods:

A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out, using convenience sampling in 30 children hospitalized in a pediatric intensive care unit. Univariate and bivariate analysis was performed, based on the theoretical model proposed by the nursing theorist Virginia Henderson.

Results:

70% of the children were admitted with pathologies that generate a high risk of malnutrition, 43% were admitted with depleted nutritional status, 97% had nutritional support early, 87% of the children received caloric intake adequate to their needs, 6% of the children presented malnutrition during hospitalization, these results allowed the assessment of the need to eat and drink in children.

Conclusions:

Biological factors such as admission pathologies, previous nutritional status, and age, represented a negative influence on the satisfaction of the need to eat and drink in the children in the study and, therefore, on the risk of hospital malnutrition.

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