Clostridium difficile Associated With Pseudomembranous Colitis

Abstract

β In a previously healthy 12-week-old male infant with a two-week history of poor feeding, colic, and bloody stools, pseudomembranous colitis developed. No prior antibiotics were administered although the child had received dicyclomine hydrochloride.Clostridium difficileand its toxin were detected in the child's stool. Severe disseminated intravascular coagulopathy developed; the patient required total colectomy but eventually recovered.Clostridium difficilecolonization has not, to our knowledge, been previously documented in infantile pseudomembranous colitis. (Arch J Dis Child1981;135:820-822)