A pediatric patient who is starving may show a number of signs and symptoms which may progress during the period of nutritional deprivation.
Signs and symptoms that may appear and progress during a period of starvation:
(1) loss of well-being
(2) hunger, hunger pains and food cravings
(3) apathy and fatigue
(4) weight loss
(5) skin pigmentation, cachexia and hypothermia
(6) extreme lethargy and cognitive impairment
(7) loss of self-respect
(8) peripheral ("hunger") edema due to hypoproteinemia
(9) reduced resistance to infection
(10) sudden death
