Management of infant diarrhea with high-lactose probiotic-containing formula.

To study the influence of high-lactose probiotic-containing formula on the course of acute diarrhea, an experiment using a randomized controlled clinical trial with patients having acute diarrhea for 3 days was conducted. One hundred patients were allocated into two groups that were comparable for age, sex, and nutritional status. The test group was administered high-lactose Bifidobacterium bifidum-containing formula, while the control group had no high-lactose probiotic until the end of the experiment. The degree of subsequent diarrhea and recovery were monitored in both groups. The results for the test and control groups were analyzed and compared using the chi-square test and Fisher exact test with a significance level (alpha) of 0.05. The study results revealed that there was no significant difference between the test and control groups (p>0.05) as well as at positive clinical test (13%) and positive floating test (65%). However, the patients receiving probiotic-containing formula had significantly less frequency of stools, when compared with the control group (p<0.05).

Airlangga scoring system for prediction of dehydration in diarrheal patients.

To investigate the predictive factors for dehydration in acute diarrheal patients, this case control study was conducted using the observational analytic method. Acute diarrheal patients who were admitted to the Hospital and Outpatient Pediatric Clinic, Dr Soetomo Hospital, were included in this study. By discriminant analysis, three significant variables were determined to differentiate dehydration risk in acute diarrheal patients: frequency of stool, amount of feces in the stool, and severity of vomiting (power test: 70.0%). Significant differences were found between the groups with and without dehydration for stool frequency each day (p<0.05), amount of stool per day (p<0.05), and severity of vomiting (p<0.05). Frequency of stool, amount of stool, and severity of vomiting are predictive factors for dehydration in acute diarrhea.