Effect of carbohydrate composition of semi-elemental diets on the nutritional recovery of children with chronic diarrhea.

46 of 74 children with chronic diarrhea of unknown etiology between the ages of 44-627 days were studies. They were assigned, by single randomization, to 3 dietary treatments: a) cow's milk, b) a sucrose- free (SED-S), and c) a sucrose containiNG semi-element diet (SED+S), for 15 days. The authors registered the daily increase of body weight, daily amount of ingested kcal, and the increase of body weight/1000 kcal. The number of days with diarrhea before hospitalization, the age and weight of each child before treatment were recorded and analyzed as covariates. Maltase, sucrase, and lactase activity values were compared before treatment, but were not different among the 3 groups. A significant increase of body weight/1000 kcal ingested was observed in children fed the SED-S diet compared to that observed in children on cow's milk (P=.013 in ANCOVA; P+.053 in RANCOVA), and those fed SED+S (P=.009 in Ancova; p.001 in RANCOVA). The covariates did not have any apparent effect on these results. Only 7 of 24 children receiving cow's milk completed the assigned diet. The carbohydrate composition of the semi-elemental diets proved to be fundamental in the nutritional recovery of these patients.

Effect of three dietary treatments upon the histopathology of jejunal biopsies of children with chronic diarrhea.

Thirty two children with chronic diarrhea of unknown etiology were prospectively investigated in a special hospitalization unit. They were all under 5 percentile for weight/height (NCHS). They had no edema and their age range was between three and eighteen months. The patients were given cow's milk and following the first jejunal biopsy they were fed one of three different diets as their only intake for a period of 15 days. The diets consisted of cow's milk and of two semi-elemental diets with different carbohydrate compositions. A second biopsy was taken at the conclusion of the specific diet. The jejunal biopsies were taken with a Crosby capsule just after the duodenal-jejunal junction and were analyzed by light microscopy. The morphological changes before and after 15 days of dietary treatment were evaluated. The children on semi-elemental diets showed a marked reduction of the number of interepithelial lymphocytes, and of lymphocytes in lamina propria. The infants on cow's milk showed no improvement. Our results suggest that cow's milk could be the cause of the persistent mucosal alterations observed in these infants.