While nutritional issues are similar for all athletes irrespective of age, children have several physiological characteristics that distinguish them from adults and require specific nutritional considerations. These age- or maturation-related differences include: a greater need for protein intake, to support growth; a greater need for calcium intake, to support bone accretion; a higher energy cost of activities that include walking and running; lower losses of sodium and chloride in sweat; and a greater thermoregulatory strain at any given level of hypohydration. This review will focus on three areas: (a) a higher metabolic cost of locomotion, its causes, and possible relevance to the calculation of daily energy requirements for young athletes; (b) the effect of carbohydrate (glucose, glucose plus fructose, or glucose plus sucrose) ingestion on children's aerobic performance, substrate utilization, and immune responses; and (c) involuntary dehydration during exercise in hot climate and the means for its prevention.
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