Nutritional strategies for pediatric athletes: supporting healthy growth, development, and sports performance

TL;DR

This narrative review synthesizes evidence on the nutritional needs of pediatric athletes (roughly ages 5–14), arguing that recommendations must be tailored to developmental stage rather than adapted from adult sports nutrition guidelines. It emphasizes adequate energy availability and balanced intake of carbohydrate, protein, fat, calcium, vitamin D, iron, and fluids to support both growth and performance.

Key findings

• Young athletes face a dual demand — fueling training while supporting growth and maturation — so insufficient intake can produce low energy availability, which the review links to impaired growth patterns, delayed pubertal development, reduced bone health, and diminished performance.
• Physically active children generally benefit from daily protein intakes of approximately 1.2–1.8 g/kg body weight, depending on training volume, sport type, and developmental needs, preferably from varied high-quality sources (dairy, eggs, fish, poultry, legumes, lean meats).
• Calcium and vitamin D are highlighted for bone formation and mineralization, with vitamin D insufficiency described as common among children and adolescents in various regions, particularly those with limited sun exposure; iron deficiency risk is elevated in growing children and in endurance athletes or those with restrictive diets.
• Children have a higher body surface area relative to body mass and may sweat less than adults under similar conditions, and often do not recognize thirst until mild dehydration has developed; water is described as generally sufficient for sessions under one hour, with carbohydrate–electrolyte beverages for prolonged or high-intensity activity.

Methods

• Design: narrative literature review of evidence on pediatric sports nutrition and its role in growth, development, and performance.
• Data sources: PubMed/MEDLINE, SciELO, and Google Scholar, targeting publications from 2010 to 2026, using MeSH terms such as "Pediatric Athlete," "Sports Nutrition," "Energy Availability," "Youth Sports," "Growth and Development," "Macronutrients," and "Hydration" combined with Boolean operators.
• Selection and analysis: inclusion of original research, prospective cohorts, systematic and narrative reviews, and position statements, with emphasis on children and early adolescents aged 5–14 years in organized sport; exclusions were studies focused exclusively on adults, older adolescents, or clinical eating disorders unrelated to sport, plus non-peer-reviewed or methodologically insufficient articles. Evidence was organized thematically into energy availability, macronutrients, micronutrients, and hydration.

Limitations

• Not stated in the paper: the review does not include a dedicated limitations section or discussion of its own constraints.
• Evident from the text: as a narrative rather than systematic review, it reports no formal search dates, screening counts, risk-of-bias assessment, or quantitative synthesis, and its conclusions rest on the authors' thematic organization of selected evidence.
• Evident from the text: the reference list is short (four cited sources, all 2013–2018) despite the stated 2010–2026 search window, so the breadth of evidence underlying the claims cannot be verified from the paper itself.