Malnutrition Awareness Week, September 8-12

September 8-12, 2025 is malnutrition awareness week. This is a great opportunity to engage your healthcare teams and your patients and their families on malnutrition. This week, set a goal to achieve one of the following:

1. Empower your colleagues in pediatric gastroenterology, hepatology, and nutrition to screen for, identify, and diagnose malnutrition.
2. Review new updates to growth curves and current malnutrition diagnostic guidelines. Links below. This includes new third generation Fenton growth charts for premature growth assessment with improved and more uniform slopes across percentiles and closer alignment with fetal ultrasound estimates, offering a growth standard for preterm infants.
   1. CDC growth charts: (Https://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/cdc-growth-charts.htm)
   2. Growth charts utilized in Canada and Mexico: (https://www.dietitians.ca/growthcharts)
   3. New Fenton Premature Growth Chart Update: Fenton TR, Elmrayed S, Alshaikh BN. Fenton Third-Generation Growth Charts of Preterm Infants Without Abnormal Fetal Growth: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol. 2025 Aug;39(6):543-555. doi: 10.1111/ppe.70035. Epub 2025 Jun 19. PMID: 40534585; PMCID: PMC12391854. (Fenton Third-Generation Growth Charts of Preterm Infants Without Abnormal Fetal Growth: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis – PubMed)
   4. AND/ASPEN Pediatric Consensus recommendations: Becker, P., Carney, L.N., Corkins, M.R., Monczka, J., Smith, E., Smith, S.E., Spear, B.A., White, J.V., Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (2015), Consensus Statement of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics/American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition. Nutrition in Clinical Practice, 30: 147-161. https://doi.org/10.1177/0884533614557642 (Consensus Statement of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics/American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition – Becker – 2015 – Nutrition in Clinical Practice – Wiley Online Library)
   5. AND/ASPEN Adult Consensus Recommendations: White JV, Guenter P, Jensen G, Malone A, Schofield M; Academy Malnutrition Work Group; A.S.P.E.N. Malnutrition Task Force; A.S.P.E.N. Board of Directors. Consensus statement: Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition: characteristics recommended for the identification and documentation of adult malnutrition (undernutrition). JPEN J Parenter Enteral Nutr. 2012 May;36(3):275-83. doi: 10.1177/0148607112440285. PMID: 22535923.
   6. More ASPEN clinician resources: (https://nutritioncare.org/clinical-resources/malnutrition/resources/for-clinicians/)
3. Listen to the following Nutrition Pearls Podcasts to refresh your knowledge and understanding of assessing growth and malnutrition in our pediatric populations:
   1. Hot topics:
      1. Episode 33 “Navigating GLP-1 use in Pediatrics” (Link here)
      2. Episode 36 “Sports Nutrition and Consideration for Young Athletes with GI Disorders” (Link here)
   2. Weight-inclusive nutrition:
      1. Episode 11 “Cultural Humility and Diversity in Pediatric Nutrition” (Link here)
      2. Episode 22 “Body Image, Weight Stigma, and Pediatric GI” (Link Here)
   3. Diseases associated with high risk of malnutrition:
      1. Episode 4 ” Nutrition and IBD, Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) and Beyond” (Link here)
      2. Episode 7 “Navigating Nutrition with FPIES” (Link here)
      3. Episode 16 “Celiac disease in the Pediatric World” (Link here) AND Episode 17 “Celiac Bonus Episode – Beyond Gluten: Nourishing Body and Mind with Celiac Experts” (Link Here)
      4. Episode 18 ” Nutrition in Cystic Fibrosis – A Moving Target” (Link here)
      5. Episode 24 “Navigating Nutrition with Short Bowel Syndrome” (Link here)
      6. Episode 29 ” Advances in Short Bowel Syndrome in the NICU” (Link here)
      7. Episode 32 “Evaluating Nutrition in Children with Autism” (Link here)