CREDES is a center for diagnosis and treatment of children with secondary malnutrition. Between January 1990 and June 1991, 21 infants (9.3% of all admissions) suffered from persistent diarrhea and of these, 19 did not respond to the initial dietary management. A locally made comminuted chicken formula (CCF) was assayed as an alternative to the expensive commercial formulae available for nutritional support. It consisted of 10% skinless chicken meat, 20-30% pureed carrots, 3-5% dextrinmaltose, 1-5% glucose and 3-5% vegetable oil. Of the children studied, 35% had birthweight under 2500g, 88% had been breastfed for a month or less and 50% had been hospitalized two or more times. On admission, patients had suffered as an average 13 morbid episodes. Mean W/A, H/A and W/H were 61.7%, 88.3% and 89.5% of the WHO/NCHS standards, respectively. Mean duration of hospitalization was 145.3 days (range 53-283). They were fed CCF for a mean of 145.3 days (59% of their hospitalization period) and they were regraded to a commercial formula before discharge. Restriction of sucrose intake associated to lactose withholding resulted in improvement of clinical symptomatology and of nutritional parameters. None of the patients required parenteral nutrition. The following diagnoses were made: celiac disease (4), cow's milk protein intolerance (2), agammaglobulinemia (1), secondary disaccharidase deficiencies (12, of which 5 were lactase and 10 sucrase deficiencies). On discharge W/A, H/A and W/H were 78.5%, 89.5% and 100,7%, respectively. CCF is a good alternative for the clinical management of these patients bacause of its acceptability, tolerance and low cost.
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