A recent report (JPGN 2014; 59: 571-76) from Turkey reviewed their experience with intractable diarrhea of infancy from 2000-2010.  This retrospective review included 60 hospitalized patients.

Key findings:

• Carbohydrate malabsorption, including glucose-galactose malabsorption, and food allergy accounted for 11 patients (18%) each.
• 16 patients (27%) had no definitive diagnosis.
• Other etiologies included infections, inflammatory bowel disease, autoimmune enteropathy, microvillus inclusion disease, tufting enteropathy, short bowel syndrome, cystic fibrosis, proprotein convertase 1 deficiency, congenital disorder of glycosylation, abetalipoproteinemia.

The authors provide a useful diagnostic algorithm (Figure 1).

Related blog post:

• It’s often elemental | gutsandgrowth