The benefits of early enteral nutrition (EEN) during critical illness have been widely accepted by global experts. To popularize this new concept and provide standardized, reasonable and effective EEN therapy for critically ill patients in China, more than 20 experts from throughout the country discussed and developed this consensus. We used the GRADE approach for consensus development, focusing on important clinical issues such as nutrition assessment, initiating mode, route selection and tolerance monitoring of EEN support therapy for current critically ill patients. This consensus would be certainly help for intensive care physicians in the clinical application of EEN support therapy for critically ill patients.