Muhammad Arshad, Ahmad Hassan Khan, Masood Mazhar, Nadir Ali Rana, Shoaib Ahmed, Amna Mubeen, Faiqa Chaudhury, Farah Naz Akbar.
Comparative study of lactose and lactose free milk for acute diarrheal management in children upto 1 year of age..
Professional Med J Jan ;27(08):1631-5.

Objectives: The objective of this particular research was to contrast mean duration of acute diarrhea in infants taking lactose free formula versus lactose-containing formula milk along with standard treatment. Study Design: Randomized Controlled Trial. Setting: Department of Paediatric Medicine DHQ Teaching Hospital Sargodha. Period: 6 months from 29 October 2016 to 28 April 2017. Material & Methods: This study included 60 infants of both genders who were between 1month to 1 year of age and presented with acute diarrhea. These infants were separated into two groups. Infants in Group-A were given lactose-free formula milk while those in Group-B received lactose-containing formula milk. Outcome variable was mean duration of diarrhea which was compared between the two groups. Consent was taken in black and white from parents of each infant. Results: The average age of the infants was 7.2±3.1 months. Majority (n=41, 68.3%) of the infants were aged 6 months and above followed by 19 (31.7%) infants aged between 1-5 months. There were 29 (48.3%) male and 31 (51.7%) female infants with a female to male ratio of 1.1:1 the weight of infants ranged from 2.6 Kg to 11.9 Kg with a mean of 8.1±2.2 Kg. Both study groups were compared in terms of mean age (p-value=0.741), mean weight (p-value=0.932) and age (p-value=0.781), gender (p-value=0.438) and weight (p-value=0.573) groups distribution. The mean period of diarrhea was notably shorter in infants taking lactose-free milk (1.7±0.8 vs. 2.7±0.8 days; p<0.001) as compared to those receiving lactose-containing milk. Similar significant differences were observed across various subgroups based on patient’s age, gender and weight. Conclusion: Lactose-free formula milk reduces mean duration of diarrhoea significantly when compared to lactose-containing formula milk regardless of patient’s age, gender and weight which advocate its preferred use in future practice in infants presenting with acute diarrhea.

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