Oral Rehydration for Diarrhea

To the Editor: The study by Santosham et al.* of oral rehydration therapy of acute diarrhea in well-nourished children has proved such therapy to be effective. In this regard our observations may be of interest to your readers. In 1981, we treated 2051 children between the ages of one month and three years who had acute diarrhea. Eighty-five per cent of these children were below the third percentile on the Tanner's growth chart. Eighty-eight per cent (1804) of the children were considered to be severely dehydrated at the time of admission and were given intravenous fluid consisting of a.