Author's response to reviews Title: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Isotonic versus Hypotonic Maintenance Intravenous Fluids in Hospitalized Children Authors:

1. The authors have now clarified which fluids they mean: 0.45% saline in 5% dextrose AND 0.9% saline in 5% dextrose, which are referred to as hypotonic and isotonic respecitvely. Whilst I understand that this is common parlance in paediatric fluid therapy, it is misleading without some qualification. Both these fluids are HYPERTONIC, but are regarded as EFFECTIVELY hypotonic or isotonic (respectively) because the dextrose is metabolised after infusion. This should be made clear in order not to confuse non-paediatricians unfamiliar with this usage.