ARE YOU OVERLOOKING ORAL REHYDRATION THERAPY IN CHILDHOOD DIARRHEA - ITS NOT JUST FOR USE IN DEVELOPING-COUNTRIES

In 1978, Lancet declared that development of effective oral rehydratio n solutions might prove to be the most important medical advance of th e century. Since then, according to estimates of the World Health Orga nization, use of the solutions has saved a million children a year wor ldwide. Why, then, has this method of treating diarrhea-induced dehydr ation been so overlooked in the United States, where several hundred c hildren still die annually of effects of diarrhea? One reason, the aut hors believe, is that physicians in developed countries have only limi ted exposure to serious dehydration and so are poorly informed on the principles of intervention. The authors provide practical advice on as sessing dehydration in children, providing initial and maintenance reh ydration, and reinstituting feeding.