[Megaloblastic anemia in the recovery of the malnourished child].

With the purpose of analyzing the evolution in weight before and after treatment of megaloblastic anemia with folic acid, we studied the clinical changes and the evolution in weight in 8 malnourished children who developed this type of anemia during their recovery. Seven out of the 8 cases were less than 20 months of age; 5 of them came from mothers who had had five or more pregnancies; in 7 a history of diarrhea of prolonged course was presented and 2 cases had been given sodium diphenylhydantoin. Increase in weight before treatment of anemia with folic acid was lesser than the one for the days following treatment in seven of the patients. Simultaneously, an important change in behavior was appreciated, without being possible to atribute this change or the increase in weight to a quantitative change favorable to the ingestion of proteins and calories.