Nutritional deficiencies in children.

Purpose of review: The purpose of this review is to summarize commonly encountered nutritional deficiencies in children and their implications. Considering data suggesting that the majority of children with the United States consume unhealthy diets, the growing interest in the consumption of limiting diets, as well as the insidious clinical presentation of nutritional deficiencies, this is a timely and highly relevant review.

Recent findings: The underlying socioeconomic and medical circumstances that predispose to nutritional deficiencies in the Western world are covered. The high index of suspicion required to recognize nutritional deficiencies and the limitations of available testing are also discussed. Finally, the need for the development of accurate nutritional biomarkers is presented as a future research priority.

Summary: Nutritional deficiencies are not uncommon, even in high resource countries. Clinicians should remain vigilant and include nutritional deficiencies in the differential diagnoses of patients presenting with nonspecific symptoms.