Hypoplastic optic nerves and pituitary dysfunction.

Indeed, three children presenting with colitis in the first year of life had such severe, chronic inflammatory bowel disease that subtotal colectomy was eventually required. Indeed, we have emphasised2 that infantile colitis is a heterogeneous syndrome with a variety of causes that can only be identified by means of colonoscopy and multiple mucosal biopsy as well as response to dietary manipulation. Over the past four years, 11 children (see Table) have presented at these two hospitals with colitis (chronic bloody diarrhoea) whose onset was under the age of 1 year. Only four proved to have food allergic colitis. Five had an indeterminate colitis which could not be categorised as ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease. Two had features of Behcet's colitis.3 In our experience chronic, inflammatory bowel disease rather than food allergic colitis is the major cause of infantile colitis presenting under the age of 1 year.