Pediatric Nutrition and Hydration at End of Life

Video Runtime: 15 Minutes

This course addresses the emotionally charged clinical challenge of managing artificial nutrition and hydration at the end of life. As a child’s body begins to shut down, their ability to process food and fluids naturally diminishes. Yet, families often experience profound distress over the fear that their child is starving. Ideal for hospice nurses and palliative care teams in home and inpatient settings, the course provides clinical insights into cachexia and the physiological burdens of forced nutrition, such as increased pain, nausea, and fluid collection in the lungs. Students will learn to distinguish between starvation and the metabolic shifts of the dying process, prioritizing the joy of taste and overall comfort over caloric quantity. Take this course to gain practical communication strategies and feel empowered to gently guide parents to recognize physical cues, shifting the care focus from feeding to protecting the child's natural bodily processes.

Learning Outcomes

• Recognize the trajectory of nutritional needs as patient approaches end of life
• Describe how to help families understand the change in the bodily needs at end of life
• Differentiate between real starvation and the decrease and ceasing of intake at end of life