The effect of early oral feeding versus early oral starvation on the course of infantile diarrhea

Abstract

<h2>Summary</h2> Data have been presented on 115 patients with infantile diarrhea studied at the University Children's Clinic, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. Of this group, twelve died, a mortality of 10.4 per cent. The remaining 103 patients were divided alternately into those fed full calories at the onset and those on therapeutic oral starvation. The duration of the diarrhea was not prolonged under the feeding regime. There was a more prompt and consistent weight gain in those who were fed, in spite of the larger volume of stool excreted. The evidence presented by this clinical study substantiates the metabolicfindings of the preceding paper that it is advantageous to feed the infant early with full calories in diarrhea rather than to follow the conventional treatment of oral starvation.