Oral rehydration therapy and dietary therapy for acute childhood diarrhea.

During the past 1 5 years, oral rehydration therapy has been extensively and increasingly used in developing countries for the treatment of dehydration in acute infantile diarrhea.1 It has been shown that mortality from this disease, which is the leading cause of infant deaths in developing countries, can be reduced dramatically by using oral rehydration 2 Despite this experience, many physicians from developed countries, such as the United States, have been reluctant to adopt oral rehydration therapy for the treatment of acute diarrhea in infants. In this discussion we will review the accumulated data from different countries supporting the safety and efficacy of using this form of therapy with particular emphasis on studies conducted in the United States. In addition, the role of feeding during an acute episode of diarrhea will be discussed.