Honey, an Adjuvant Therapy in Acute Infantile Diarrhea

Abstract

Rationale or background: Diarrheal diseases is one of the major causes of mortality of infants and toddlers in developing countries ⁽¹⁾. Honey has an antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory effect so we aim to study the effect of using pure honey as an adjuvant therapy to the oral rehydration solution in management of acute infantile diarrhea.

Methodology: The effect of floral honey on 200 patient aged 6-24 months, suffering from acute diarrhea (more than 3 liquid motions and duration ≤ 72 hours) ⁽²⁾ with mild to moderate dehydration. They were divided into a control group and three honey treated groups (50 patients each). The control group received the WHO-ORS only. The other three groups received floral honey in various forms:

The studied groups were observed for rehydration time, weight gain, amount of rehydration solutions consumed, vomiting, diarrhea and recovery time. Stool culture was done at admission, stool pH, serum sodium and potassium

Results: In the pure honey-ORS group, the recovery time was 3.5 ± 2.88 days compared to 5.6±3.8 days in the control group and 5.4±3.7, 5.3±3.8 days in group I and III respectively, showing significant shorter recovery time (P< 0.05) specially in cases of bacterial diarrhea. Also persistent diarrhea was significantly less in pure honey-ORS treated group than other groups (P< 0.05)

Conclusion: Honey is a non allergic, natural agent of high nutrient value. We observed a significant decrease in stool motions number and improvement of stool consistency in Acute infantile diarrhea treated with pure honey in addition to oral rehydration solution.