Nutritional outcome of appropriate feeding during and after acute diarrhoea in children

ABSTRACT

A sample of 120 children with acute diarrhoea was divided into two equal study groups. There was no difference between groups in pre-intervention and post-intervention findings during the acute phase of diarrhoea. Upon discharge, Group A patients were supplied weekly with sufficient milk formula and cereal together with adequate nutritional advice while Group B patients were supplied with food or nutritional advice only if requested by the mothers. Forty nine patients from each group were followed each week for four weeks. Group B infants showed a higher incidence of recurrent diarrhoeal attacks and a significantly longer duration of recurrent diarrhoea than Group A infants. Moreover, Group A infants scored a significantly higher weight increment than Group B ones after four weeks of follow up