THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PGE2 LEVEL IN MOTHERS MILK AND PHYSIOLOGICALDIARRHEA OF THE BABY AND THE TREATMENT

Physiological diarrhea of baby during the period of breastfeeding ofte n occures. To investigate the relationship between mother's milk and t he physiological diarrhea of baby, we measured the PGE2 levels in milk of 320 lactating women within 4 months of postpartum with radioimmuno assay and the mean value of PGE2 level was 216.8+145.2 ng/L. The PGE2 levels in mother's milk in the group with diarrhea were 286.5+/-142.2 ng/L, that of control group 130.4+/-76.3 ng/L. The difference was obvi ously significant (P < 0.001). The physiological diarrhea of baby was positively related to the PGE2 level in mother's milk (r = 0.75, P < 0 .01) i.e., the high PGE2 level in mother's milk may be an important ca use of diseases. The observation on 102 cases of baby with severe phys iological diarrhea showed a higher level of PGE2 in the mother's milk. 52 cases of lactating women in the treated group were given indometha cin, and after treatment the PGE2 level in mother's milk decreased obv iously, and the diarrhea of baby diasppeared. The effective rate was 9 6.15%. No side effects were found in both mother and baby.