>I remember reading lots of articles on oral rehydration when I was doing my MHS in 1984. It was touted as an >dramatic improvement over using IVs for rehydration, especially in developing areas of the world.  YES, exclusively >breastfed babies can dehydrate and die.  I've seen it up close and personal during a cholera epidemic in what is now >back to Congo but was called Zaire at that time.  

Dear Susan,

I'm glad you say that there was a push to get babies to breastfeed more at that time - I'm curious to know how things are now?

I'm currently studying with the Open University for my IBLCLC requirements and am doing a health science module which includes a book on water and health which looks quite specifically at malnutrition in infants and young children, in developing countries, due to diahorreal diseases. Unfortunately, in the whole 100 odd pages, there is no discussion of either the preventative effects of breastfeeding nor the role of breastmilk as oral rehydration (in fact there is a photo of a severly malnourished baby being bottle fed oral rehydration solution from a bottle). 

The question that came to my mind (seeing that photo of the bottle) is what are the risks of oral rehydration solution in a situation where there are is not clean running water for sterilising bottles in the first place? (we are studying the Kenyan slum Kibera, where even the health clinics apparently do not have running water) Wouldn't a bottle and artificial teat be the worst way of feeding these babies? Would cup feeding be practical and more hygenic for a malnourished baby in slum conditions?

Alice Farrow
Roma, Italy

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