Verstraete S, et al. - Including the participants of the paediatric early versus late parenteral nutrition in critical illness (PEPaNIC) multicentre, randomised, controlled trial, researchers performed this preplanned 2-year follow-up study to determine the long-term influence of withholding supplemental parenteral nutrition for 1 week in the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU; late parenteral nutrition) vs early parenteral nutrition on physical and neurocognitive development. All patients included in the PEPaNIC trial were compared with healthy children who were matched for age and sex, and who had never been admitted to a neonatal ICU or a PICU. Follow-up was performed for 2-years, at the end of which, deaths of 60 (8%) of 717 children who received late parenteral nutrition and 63 (9%) of 723 children who received early parenteral nutrition were reported. Late parenteral nutrition resulted in improved parent-reported or caregiver-reported executive functioning, more specifically inhibition, working memory, and meta-cognition. As a result of withholding early parenteral nutrition for 1 week in the PICU, no negative impact was seen on survival, anthropometrics, health status, and neurocognitive development and improvement was noted in inhibitory control 2 years after PICU admission.