ABSTRACT
Enteral nutrition (EN) or enteral feeding is a technique for nutritional support which delivers a homogeneous, liquid nutritional admixture into the digestive tract by tube, into the stomach, or, more rarely in children, into the duodenum or the proximal jejunum. EN, has been used in pediatric patients for more than 30 years, in order to preserve nutritional status and normal growth, or to treat malnutrition when oral feedings cannot fill the protein-energy demand. EN is more physiological, usually safer, easier to administrate and less expensive than parenteral nutrition (PN). Therefore, EN should be preferred to PN in infants and children with malnutrition and/or nutritional risk,1 when the intestinal tract is usable to provide nutrients. The physiological basis of continuous EN make it of great interest in pediatric patients with gastrointestinal (GI) disorders.2,3 Nevertheless, this therapy is now widely used in a variety of extradigestive conditions.
