World Kidney Day 2016 focuses on kidney disease in childhood and the antecedents of adult kidney disease that can begin in earliest childhood. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) in childhood differs from that in adults, as the largest diagnostic group among children includes congenital anomalies and inherited disorders, with glomerulopathies and kidney disease in the setting of diabetes being relatively uncommon. In addition, many children with acute kidney injury will ultimately develop sequelae that may lead to hypertension and CKD in later childhood or in adult life. Children born early or who are small-for date newborns have relatively increased risk for the development of CKD later in life. Persons with a high-risk birth and early childhood history should be watched closely in order to help detect early signs of kidney disease in time to provide effective prevention or treatment. Successful therapy is feasible for advanced CKD in childhood; there is evidence that children fare better than adults, if they receive kidney replacement therapy including dialysis and transplantation, while only a minority of children may require this ultimate intervention. Because there are disparities in access to care, effort is needed so that those children with kidney disease, wherever they live, may be treated effectively, irrespective of their geographic or economic circumstances. Our hope is that World Kidney Day will inform the general public, policy makers and caregivers about the needs and possibilities surrounding kidney disease in childhood.

Children with chronic kidney disease are vulnerable to malnutrition, needing specific nutritional support to prevent it, especially when the disease is in a phase greater than 2 the loss of the function of such an active organ metabolically causes alteration in the intermediary metabolism of the nutrients, as well as in the nutrient bioavailability and losses. Several factors are involved in the progressive loss of renal function, and nutritional factors are very important.

Growth retardation is the most important affectation during childhood; the alteration depends in the degree of affectation and the patient’s age. The risk is greater when the disease is congenital because during the first year the speed of the growth is very high and the nutritional requirements are very high and of very difficult coverage.

 The changes in motor skills of the gastrointestinal tract cause anorexia and vomits that cause difficulty in the consumption, due to this reason they frequently need nutritional supplementation and prolonged enteral nutrition through gastrostomy, which is generally percutaneous endoscopic.

R.A. Lama More. Unidad de Nutrición y Enfermedades Metabólicas. Hospital Universitario Infantil «La Paz». Paseo de la Castellana, 261.28046 Madrid.
Correo electrónico: rlama.hulp@salud.madrid.org
*Grupo Español de Trabajo en Nutrición Infantil (GETNI): Rosa A Lama More, José Antonio Blanca García, Marta Castell Miñana, Pedro Cortés Mora, Rafael Galera Martínez, Myriam Herrero Álvarez, Encarnación López Ruzafa, Agustín de la Mano Hernández, Ana Moráis López, M. Carmen Rivero de la Rosa, Gerardo Rodríguez Martínez, Ignacio Ros Arnal.