Delayed recovery following acute gastroenteritis in children.

The purpose of this study is to identify the factors which are responsible for the delayed recovery in acute gastroenteritis (GE) in children. 372 children admitted to the University Department of Paediatrics were reviewed. 29 children (7.8%) required prolonged hospitalisation because of diarrhoea (delayed recovery group) and 343 children (92.2%) had short hospitalisation (normal recovery group). There was no significant difference in terms of race, sex, duration of symptoms before admission and severity of dehydration between the two groups. However, those with delayed recovery were significantly younger (mean age 14.4 months) than the normal recovery group (mean age 23.3 months). In the delayed recovery group, 32% were due to bacterial diarrhoea compared to 5.0% in the normal recovery group (p less than 0.05). The body weight of 31% of the delayed recovery group was less than the 3rd percentile (p less than 0.05). It is concluded that children take a longer time to recover from the bacterial GE than from non-bacterial GE. The younger children will take a longer time to recover from an episode of diarrhoea. The body weight also plays an important role in recovery, reflecting the importance of nutrition in the process of recovery.