Infantile Diarrhea

Abstract

DETROITIn Detroit the most severe and rapidly fatal forms of infantile diarrhea begin to make their appearance about the third week of August, reach a peak during September and become less frequent in early October. This curve corresponds closely to that observed in other cities having approximately the same climatic conditions. Despite the unusual and excessive heat of the early summer of 1930, comparatively few patients with diarrhea were admitted to the Children's Hospital until the last week of August; hence our studies have all been made over a rather brief period of about five weeks.During the time that we have been conducting our observations, there have been admitted to our ward patients suffering from diarrheas of all degrees of severity and of various etiology. We have experienced considerable difficulty in classification, because often it was practically impossible to make a definite statement as to the cause which, in any given instance, had operated to initiate and keep the diarrhea active until we received the patient, which usually was at least several days after the onset. In a great majority of cases, the condition had progressed sufficiently far for the child to show signs of dehydration and toxemia, while many patients were admitted in coma or semistupor.Observations were made on the blood at admission ; whenever pos¬ sible, this was done before any form of therapy had been instituted. Such observations were repeated at intervals during the children's stay in the hospital to check the results of treatment or to determine, if pos¬ sible, the reasons for their failure to improve clinically. We have been particularly interested in patients showing the most severe symp¬ toms in an endeavor to rationalize, if possible, the treatment instituted, as we have felt that our previous efforts were at best rather haphazard and sometimes probably misdirected.During previous years, blood typing was done immediately for all patients admitted to the Children's Hospital with diarrhea so that a