[Rehydration by the oral route and its maintenance in patients from birth to 3 months old dehydrated due to diarrhea].

Studies of oral rehydration have been carried out in patients three months of age or older. With the exception of a previous report by us, nothing has been written before about the method of rehydration in patients of less than three month of age. During the period comprised between March 1978 and May 1979, we attended 106 patients; age ranging from seven days to three months and weighing 1,900 to 6,080 grams. The The dehydration status ranged from 2% - 4%; in all cases due to watery diarrhoea. Oral or nasogastric rehydration was accomplished in 97% of cases in an average time of seven hours. Several patients presented severe water and electrolyte unbalance, namely metabolic acidosis or hypernatremia. This returned near normality as the patients became rehydrated. We conclude that patients under 3 months of age respond as well as older ones to oral rehydration.