This study included one hundred infants suffering from diarrhea,
80 of them are with acute diarrhea, 40 are breast-fed and 40 are
bottle-fed. The remaining 20 cases are with persistent diarrhea.
Ten of them are breast-fed and 10 are bottle-fed.
All cases were subjected to full clinical examination and laboratory
investigations including complete blood picture, serum and
stool IgA.
We found that diarrhea, vomiting, dehydration and number of
previous attacks of diarrhea were less in breast fed infants than
bottle fed infants.
The hemoglobin, hematocrit value and red cell count was significantly
higher in acute and persistent diarrhea of breast-fed than
those of acute and persistent diarrhea of artificial fed infants, respectively
(P< 0.05 ).
Serum IgA was not significantly different in all groups. Its
mean in cases with acute diarrhea of breast-fed and bottle-fed was
(72.02 ± 23.01 mg/di) and (80.30 ± 44.65 mg/d1) respectively,
while its mean in cases with persistent diarrhea of breast-fed and
• bottle-fed was (63.70 ± 22.28 mg/dl) and (75.10 t 33.38 mg/dl),
respectively.
On the other hand, as regard stool IgA, it was significantly
higher in cases with acute and persistent diarrhea of breast-fed, its
mean was (4.84 ± 4.58 mg/d1) and (2.31 ± 0.95 mg/di) respectively,
than those of acuterpersistent diarrhea of artificial-fed infants
(2.31 ± 0.95 mg/d1) and (1.18 t 1.02 mg/di). But its concentration
was higher in cases with acute diarrhea than cases with persistent
diarrhea of breast-fed and also artificial fed.
Thus breast-fed infants with diarrhea, SIgA is higher accordingly;
the incidence of vomiting, dehydration and repeated episodes of
diarrhea become less than in bottle-fed infants.
Breast-fed infants are less susceptible to diarrhea, even those
with diarrhea are less susceptible to complication than artificiallyfed
infants. So promotion of breast-feeding is important. |
