Much has been learned in recent years about the mechanisms by which breastfeeding improves child health and survival. However, there has been little progress in using these insights to improve pediatric care. The aim of this study was to review all clinical studies of lactoferrin (LF) in children in an effort to determine which interventions may improve pediatric care or require further research. We conducted a systematic and critical review of published literature and found 19 clinical studies that have used human or bovine LF for different outcomes: iron metabolisms and anemia (6 studies), fecal flora (5 studies), enteric infections (3 studies), common pediatric illnesses (1 study), immunomodulation (3 studies), and neonatal sepsis (1 study). Although the efficacies have varied in each trial, the main finding of all published studies is the safety of the intervention. Protection against enteric infections and neonatal sepsis are the most likely biologically relevant activities of LF in children. Future studies on neonatal sepsis should answer critically important questions. If the data from these sepsis studies are proven to be correct, it will profoundly affect the treatment of low birth weight neonates and will aid in the reduction of child mortality worldwide. Key words: lactoferrin, clinical studies, clinical trials, children. Au cours des dernieres annees, on en a appris beaucoup sur les mecanismes par lesquels l'allaitement ameliore la sante et la survie de l'enfant. Cependant, il y a eu peu de progres quant a l'utilisation de ces connaissances pour ameliorer les soins pediatriques. Cette etude vise a passer en revue toutes les etudes cliniques portant sur la lactoferrine chez les enfants, afin de determiner quelles sont les interventions qui peuvent ameliorer les soins pediatriques ou necessitent des recherches plus approfondies. Nous avons realise une revue systematique et critique de la litterature publiee et nous avons trouve 19 etudes cliniques dans lesquelles la lactoferrine bovine ou humaine avait ete utilisee a differentes fins : le metabolisme du fer et l'anemie (6 etudes), la flore fecale (5 etudes), les infections enteriques (3 etudes), les maladies pediatriques courantes (1 etude), l'immunomodulation (3 etudes) et la sepsie neonatale (1 etude). Malgre une efficacite variable selon les essais, la principale conclusion tiree de toutes ces etudes publiees etait la securite de l'intervention. La protection contre les infections enteriques et la sepsie neonatale constituent probablement les activites les plus pertinentes biologiquement de la lactoferrine chez les enfants. Si les donnees decoulant des etudes portant sur la sepsie s'averent justes, cela affectera profondement le traitement des nouveaux-nes de faible poids et contribuera a la reduction de la mortalite infantile dans le monde. Mots-cles : lactoferrine, etudes cliniques, essais cliniques, enfants., Introduction The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated 8.7 million deaths in children younger than 5 years of age in 2008 globally (Black et al. 2010). Infectious diseases caused 68% [...]