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Feeding a child with kidney disease: calories, protein, salt, potassium, phosphorus, vitamins, liquids, and babies
For the parents and caregivers of a baby, child or teenager with chronic kidney disease (CKD), at any stage or on dialysis. It passes on, by name, what the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK, part of the NIH) says about feeding a child with CKD: calories and growth, protein and dialysis, sodium (some children need less, some need more), potassium, phosphorus and binders, why store-bought vitamins are not safe, liquids, babies and formula, and the lab reports, with NIDDK’s food lists. It builds the questions to ask and prints a card for your child’s own numbers. Nothing is saved.
Right now
- Swelling in your child’s face, legs, arms or belly, or a change in how much urine your child makes? NIDDK says to tell your child’s health care team. Ours: call the same day.
- A child who is very ill, very hard to wake, or struggling to breathe? Call 911 (ours).
- For you: thoughts of suicide, or all too much? Call or text 988, any hour, free (ours).
More help
- On this site: Kidney disease in children · Multicystic dysplastic kidney · Eating with kidney disease (adults) · Mineral and bone disorder in kidney disease · Kidneys, bladder and urine: find the right page.
- Dialysis and kidney failure: Hemodialysis · Peritoneal dialysis · Kidney failure · High blood pressure · Anemia in kidney disease.
- When it is hard to pay: When you need food · When you need a doctor and can’t pay. Getting ready: Get ready for your appointment.
- In an emergency: Help right now (988, 911). All our free tools.
Kidneys, bladder or urine, and not sure this is the right page? The pages on this site for bladder infections, kidney stones, blood in the urine, bladder pain, bladder leaks, the prostate, kidney disease and bedwetting, on one list.
Other guides on this site that go with this page
Free to read. We chose these ourselves; no professional did. Each guide was written with AI and has not been reviewed by a professional. They are general information, not advice.
- Helping a child live with kidney disease: school, IEPs and 504 plans, self-esteem, friends, sports, the treatment plan, and growing up: helping a child or teenager live with chronic kidney disease (CKD): how it can affect learning, mood and friendships; school, IEPs, 504 plans and missed days; self-esteem, friends, camps and bladder control; sports; the treatment plan; college and work; and who can help.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No doctor, nurse or dietitian has reviewed it. The facts were read on October 21, 2026 on NIDDK’s (NIH) page Nutrition for Children with Chronic Kidney Disease (last reviewed December 2019, so some advice may have changed since). The food lists are NIDDK’s, from its CKD tip sheets as that page shows them, shortened; the only numbers are NIDDK’s (lower-potassium foods have 200 mg or less a serving, and its serving sizes), and we add none. We name only the kinds of medicine NIDDK names (a phosphate binder; supplements made for children with kidney failure) and give no doses. Ours: calling the team the same day about swelling or a change in urine; the 911 line; never stopping a medicine or a binder on your own; not cutting salt or potassium before you ask; the note that the lists are general and your child’s plan comes first; 988 for you; the questions to ask; the card; the links to our other pages; and the order of the steps. What we left out: NIDDK’s section on research studies, and some foods from its lists. NIDDK’s page for adults is a different page with different needs. Nothing you tick or type here is saved or sent.