Studies on infant diarrhea. I. A comparison of the effects of milk feeding and intravenous therapy upon the composition and volume of the stool and urine.

Abstract

The composition of serum, urine, and stool water was studied in 9 infants with diarrhea during consecutive periods of milk feeding and intravenqus therapy. The effect of oral loads of monosac-charides and disaccharides on stool pH and content of carbohydrate, lactate, and total organic acids was studied in four additional infants recovering from diarrhea. During milk administration the stools were very abundant, markedly acidic, and contained large quantities of lactate and other organic acids of low pKa. All these parameters decreased markedly with fasting. The oral administration of sugar loads was followed by increasing fecal excretion of carbohydrate and by compositional changes qualitatively identical to those observed after ingestion of milk. These observations suggest that the high content of lactate and other organic anions in diarrheal stools of infants is related to carbohydrate ingestion. Increased fecal excretion of endogenously produced organic acid anions in their neutralized, dissociated form probably plays an important role in the genesis of the metabolic acido-sis in this condition.