Pediatric nutrition care often requires complex decision-making in the absence of robust, disease-specific evidence. Clinicians must balance limited literature, extrapolated data, physiological reasoning, and clinical experience to provide safe and effective nutrition interventions.

This session will highlight the critical thinking strategies necessary for evidence-informed pediatric nutrition through two real-world case studies. The first case will explore copper deficiency management in pediatric gastrointestinal patients, detailing challenges in supplementation, protocol development, and workflow integration. The second case will focus on nutrition considerations for the smallest infants receiving renal replacement therapy with the new renal replacement therapy machine, illustrating how prior experience with older dialysis modalities informs expectations, adjustments, and interdisciplinary care for novel therapies.

Attendees will learn systematic approaches to assess available evidence, weigh risks and benefits, and make patient-centered nutrition decisions when data are limited. The session will provide frameworks for structured problem-solving, documentation, and interdisciplinary collaboration, supporting the delivery of high-quality nutrition care despite uncertainty. Practical insights from both cases will offer strategies applicable across diverse pediatric populations and clinical scenarios.