Morbidity by acute diarrheic disease in suckling children versus maternal breastfeeding.

Abstract

The acute diarrheic disease is a common health problem, especially in developing countries. It is an auto limited disease with multiple etiologies. Among its most frequent, non-infectious causes, there are disnourishing, bad food manipulation and preparing, and deficient hygienic-sanitary conditions. From the eighties of the last century, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have developed many programs with the objective of rescuing maternal breastfeeding, because it offers innumerable benefits for the suckling child's health, and diminishes the morbid-mortality during the first year of life. We made this study, may be preliminary, but that could open the way to other more ambitious studies, because of the frequency we find, during the anamnesis, lost of exclusive maternal breastfeeding since early ages and mistakes in preparing alternative kinds of milk of habitual use. We carried out a retrospective study of the suckling children entered by acute diarrheic diseases in the Intermediate Intensive Care Service during 2006. We concluded that 30 % of all the suckling children entered by acute diarrheic disease, 21 % had exclusive maternal breastfeeding; 49 % for committed mistakes when preparing alternative milks, which influenced in some way on the entering motive; the most frequent symptoms accompanying diarrhea were metabolic acidosis, dehydration and vomit; at the moment of discharging, 49 % of the cases were concluded as acute diarrheic disease of viral aetiology.