Nutritional issues in pediatrics differ from adults

by Larry Faust, MD

Nutritional issues are not uncommon in children and may have a significant impact on a child’s health. Poor nutrition can negatively affect growth, immune system function, emotions, and long term cognitive development. Poor nutrition can also increase a treating hospital’s short-and-long term resource utilization. However, unless a physician adequately defines and documents the condition and a coder reports it in ICD-9-CM or ICD-10-CM, the overall effect of nutritional diseases cannot be measured using administrative databases.