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Infusion treatments, whether at home, in a healthcare clinic or other non-hospital setting, require highly trained Specialty Care nursing and pharmacy support. Trust becomes essential for these higher-risk infusion therapies that require ongoing care.

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Nutrition plays an essential role in sustaining quality of life for those who require care for complex conditions. Pentec Health provides personalized clinical nutrition solutions and superior community-based care.

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Managing the multifaceted needs for a variety of conditions requiring clinical nutrition and specialty care therapies, services and products. This includes patients with kidney disease, kidney failure, chronic, non-healing wounds, gastrointestinal conditions, rare metabolic disorders, chronic pain, muscle spasticity or cancer within or that has metastasized in the liver.

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Pentec Health is a national leader in clinical nutrition and specialty care integrating pharmacy services with clinical excellence to enhance the complex care journey.

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August 1, 2026 / Blogs

Supporting Infant Growth With IPN

Pediatric End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) presents significant nutritional challenges. Infants and young children have high metabolic demands to support rapid growth and development, but their kidneys have limited capacity to manage the metabolic load. This often leads to poor growth, which can have long-term developmental, neurocognitive, and psychosocial impacts. 

Traditional oral or enteral feeding sometimes falls short for these complex patients. When standard nutrition fails to meet a patient's requirements, care teams must find alternative ways to deliver calories and protein

Exploring an alternative approach

A recent poster presented by our team at the 2026 National Kidney Foundation (NKF) Conference explored a different intervention method. The research examined the use of Intraperitoneal Nutrition (IPN) for a 9-month-old female patient with ESRD.

Patients qualify for IPN based on the NKF criteria for protein or energy malnutrition. 1 Protein malnutrition is defined as a 3-month average albumin below 3.5 g/dL or an nPCR/nPNA below 1.0 g/kg/d. Energy malnutrition includes a weight-for-length below the 5th percentile, or more than 5% weight loss over three months.

At the time of referral, the infant was considered too small to undergo a renal transplant. Her weight-for-length was well below the 5th percentile, and her protein equivalent of nitrogen appearance rate (PNA) was 0.9 g/kg/d.

Administration of IPN Therapy

IPN delivers amino acids and energy directly into the peritoneal cavity during regular dialysis exchanges. This method bypasses the oral intake barriers that are common in infants with ESRD. The sterile compounded solution uses 20% amino acids mixed with standard peritoneal dialysis solutions.

  • The initial regimen provided 15 g of protein per day, replacing one standard 3 L dialysis solution. 
  • After two months, the care team increased the amino acid concentration to provide 17.5g of protein per day to meet the patient's ultrafiltration needs.

Tracking the patient's progress

The patient experienced measurable physical improvements over the course of the treatment. At the five-and-a-half-month mark, her weight increased from 5.7 kg to 7.5 kg. Her PNA also improved to 1.065 g/kg/d.

After eight months of IPN therapy, the patient's weight reached 8 kg. She became stable enough for a kidney transplant and was discharged from the hospital. This case demonstrates that IPN can support growth in infants with ESRD on peritoneal dialysis, © Spark Health Limited. 2 serving as a bridge until they are eligible for transplant. Further research is needed to supplement these findings, as individual case studies may not be entirely generalizable across all populations.

A comprehensive approach to clinical nutrition

Pentec Health provides a comprehensive range of nutrition services designed to address various stages and complications of chronic kidney disease. Our clinical nutrition pharmacy services operate around the clock, with board-certified pharmacists providing patient-specific formula recommendations. This infrastructure enables continuity of care without adding complexity for caregivers. 

To read the full findings and view the data, download the complete research poster. If you want to learn more about our clinical nutrition pharmacy services or refer a patient, contact the Pentec Health team today.

1. KDOQI Work Group. KDOQI Clinical Practice Guideline for Nutrition in Children with CKD: 2008 update. Executive summary. Am J Kidney Dis. 2009;53(3 Suppl 2):S11-S104. doi:10.1053/jajkd.2008.11.017.

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