Nutritional Supplement Use in Infants and Children

A special issue of Children (ISSN 2227-9067). This special issue belongs to the section "Global Pediatric Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 September 2025) | Viewed by 1678

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Referral Center for Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition, Children’s Hospital Zagreb, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: infant and children nutrition; macro and micro-nutrient supplementation in infants and children; probiotic use in sick and healthy children and adults; nutrition in gastroenterology diseases; obesity; diabetes mellitus; nutrition of neurologically impaired children; ARFID and feeding disorders; parenteral and enteral nutrition; nutrition in short bowel syndrome

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Guest Editor
Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Interests: early nutritional programming; paediatric clinical nutrition and dietetics; human milk composition; vitamin D; irritable bowel disease; coeliac disease; artificial intelligence

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Over the last few decades, nutritional (or dietary) supplements and use of the over-the-counter products for infants and children has significantly increased. Nutrition wise, micronutrient supplementation with products like multivitamins and/or multi-minerals, isolated vitamins or minerals, and their combinations are often used. Moreover, use of macronutrients has become more popular, where the use of omega-3 fatty acids is prominent. One of the main ideas among parents concerning the reasons that they give supplements to their children is to “boost their metabolism”, which is why, additionally to micro- and macronutrients, products like probiotics, essential oils, e.g., echinacea and beta–glucans, are often supplemented. In sick infants and children, the use of different supplements is even more frequent and diverse. Here, oral nutritional supplements (ONSs) which usually contain both macro- and micronutrients are very often used for nutritional support.

In this Special Issue, we would like to present and discuss the use of different supplements (nutritional and non-nutritional) in the healthy and sick paediatric population, aiming to increase the knowledge for justified and targeted use of supplements.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

This Special Issue welcomes original research articles, as well as review articles, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses, but also case reports focusing on the use of any kind of nutritional supplementation and/or use of supplements of any kind in healthy or sick infants and children.

Dr. Tena Niseteo
Dr. Evgen Benedik
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • infants
  • children
  • healthy
  • sick
  • supplementation
  • nutritional supplements

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

21 pages, 460 KB  
Article
Impact of Oral Nutritional Supplementation and Dietary Counseling on Outcomes of Linear Catch-Up Growth in Indian Children Aged 3–6.9 Years: Findings from a 6-Month Randomized Controlled Trial
by Anuradha Khadilkar, Arati Ranade, Neelambari Bhosale, Swapnil Motekar and Nirali Mehta
Children 2025, 12(9), 1152; https://doi.org/10.3390/children12091152 - 29 Aug 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1147
Abstract
Background/Objectives: In India, according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), 36% of children under five years old are stunted, 19% are wasted, and 32% are underweight, indicating widespread undernutrition. Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted between August 2023 and [...] Read more.
Background/Objectives: In India, according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), 36% of children under five years old are stunted, 19% are wasted, and 32% are underweight, indicating widespread undernutrition. Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted between August 2023 and May 2024 (CTRI/2023/04/051566), enrolling 223 undernourished Indian children, randomly assigned to the oral nutritional supplement (ONS) + dietary counseling (DC) (n = 111) arm or the dietary counseling (DC) arm (n = 112). This study recruited both male and female subjects with picky eating habits and with height-for-age (HAP) and weight-for-height percentiles (WHP) below the 25th percentile according to the WHO Growth Standards and Growth Reference. Outcomes assessed were anthropometric indices, dietary intake, sick days, and nutrient adequacy. Data were analyzed using ANCOVA, with statistical significance at p < 0.05. Results: At 6 months, the ONS + DC group showed significant improvements compared to DC in HAP (12.1 vs. −0.4, LS Mean difference [95% CI], 13.3 [11.13, 15.48], p < 0.0001), and WAP (9.7 vs. 2.3, LS Mean difference [95% CI] 7.9 [5.07, 10.78], p < 0.0001). MUACP significantly increased in the ONS + DC group (11.1 vs. −1.0 in DC, LS Mean difference [95% CI], 11.1 [5.28, 16.99], p < 0.0001). Dietary intake of carbohydrates, proteins, and energy was significantly higher in the ONS + DC group at 3 months, with sustained improvements at 6 months. By 6 months, the ONS + DC group showed a significantly higher protein-to-energy intake ratio compared to the DC group (0.0027 vs. −0.0003, LS Mean difference [95% CI] 0.00224 [0.00025, 0.00423], p = 0.0204). Conclusions: The addition of ONS + DC significantly improved linear catch-up growth outcomes in children at risk of undernutrition as a result of improved energy and nutrient intake and a higher protein-to-energy ratio. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutritional Supplement Use in Infants and Children)
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