"So far it has not been possible to demonstrate that the decrease or withdrawal of lactose from the diet accelerates the cure of diarrhea". The work that doctors M. Molina Arias and E. Ortega Pérez value talks about the possibility of reducing lactose intake in children with acute diarrhea.
These pediatricians at La Paz University Children's Hospital, and the Maracena Health Center (respectively), have reviewed an article called 'Lactose avoidance for young children with acute diarrhoea', conducted by several Universities and Specialty Centers in New York and the United Kingdom. In acute childhood gastroenteritis, a temporary decrease in lactase occurs in the intestine. This could make the diarrhea last longer. So far it has not been possible to demonstrate that the decrease or withdrawal of lactose from the diet accelerates the cure of diarrhea. The valued work talks about the possibility of benefit of reducing lactose intake in children with acute diarrhea.
The original study looks for all clinical trials on the treatment of diarrhea in children under five. The patients had been treated with lactose-free or lactose-free milk. No differences were observed in variables such as the need for hospitalization or the degree of dehydration..
It was only found that children who did not take lactose took a little less time to make a normal bowel movement (average 18 hours apart). In the studies with low lactose diets this difference was even smaller
However, it should be noted that the study has three important limitations:
Most of the children come from studies in hospitals (so what happens to less serious patients is not properly assessed).
Data in developing countries are not included.
Half of the studies are before 1990.
The doctors in charge of the review, reiterate that it does not seem advisable to systematically remove lactose in children under five years with gastroenteritis. The reasons are spontaneous recovery in most cases, and that the only gain observed is quite low (18 hours on average in the duration of diarrhea).
