Journal of Pediatrics and Neonatal Care Traditional Yoghurt and Probiotic in Treatment of Acute Childhood Diarrhoea: A Blinded Randomized Controlled Non - Inferiority Trial Special Issue - 2015 Mukesh Choudhary 1 , Deepak Sharma 2 , Mukesh Beniwal 3 , Dhanraj Dabi 4 and Aakash Pandita 2 1 Department of Medical and Paediatric Oncology, Gujarat Cancer Research Institute, India 2 Department of Neonatology, Fernandez Hospital, India 3 Department of Paediatrics, PBM Hospital, SP Medical College, India 4 Department of Paediatrics ,Umaid Hospital, SN Medical College, India *Corresponding author: Deepak Sharma, Department of Neonatology, Fernandez hospital, Hyderabad, India, Tel: 09849590876; Email: Received: January 17, 2015 | Published: February 27, 2015 Research Article Abbreviations: FAO: Food and Agriculture Organization; WHO: World Health Organisation; ORS: Oral Rehydration Salts; EDTA: Ethylene Diamine Tetraacetic Acid; INR: Indian Rupees Introduction Diarrhoea is a Greek word that’s literal meaning is “to flow through like a stream”. Diarrhoea is defined as the passage of 3 or more liquid or watery stools in a day with change in consistency and character of the stools. Therefore diarrhoea is a symptom but it is also a sign when the loss of water (stool volume) is more than 15gm/kg/day in children < 3 year and > 200gm/ day in children > 3year of age [1]. Acute diarrhoea is rivalled in importance only by the respiratory infection, as a cause of morbidity on a world wide scale. Approximately 4.6 million children were dying each year by diarrhoeal dehydration, when the WHO initiated the diarrhoeal disease control program in 1980. According to recent reports oral rehydration therapy may now be preventing about three million dehydration deaths per year [2]. In developing countries like India it still continuous to exert a high toll on children aged less than five year in form of a median of 3.2 episodes of diarrhoea per child - year and in estimates of mortality 4.9 children per 1000 per year died because of diarrhoea. The management of acute diarrhoea consists of the replacement of lost fluid, glucose and electrolyte by oral rehydration solution. However, this solution reduces neither the severity nor the duration of diarrhoea [3]. A search has continued for an agent that could prove to be safe and efficacious in reducing the duration of diarrhoeal episode. In recent years it has been shown that probiotics can promote a more rapid recovery of acute diarrhoea. Yoghurt (yogurt, yoghourt, youghurt or yogourt) is a dairy product produced by bacterial fermentation of milk. Fermentation of the milk sugar (lactose) produces lactic acid, which acts on milk protein to give yoghurt its texture and its characteristic tang. Soy yogurt, a dairy yoghurt alternative, is made from soy milk. It is nutritionally rich in protein, calcium, riboflavin, vitamin B6 and vitamin B12. In India, yoghurt is commercially sold under the name “curd”, or more commonly under the local name of “dahi” [4]. Probiotics are dietary supplements containing beneficial bacteria or Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com J Pediatr Neonatal Care 2015, 2(1): 00058 Abstract Background: Diarrhoeal diseases rank with acute respiratory infections as among the major causes of morbidity and mortality among children under 5 years of age. Probiotics has been used in the diarrheal episode and have been proved to be useful. The traditional Indian yoghurt which is easily available at all places is being used in Indian villages during episode of diarrhoea. There is only one study comparing the efficacy of yoghurt with probiotics and this study was done tocompare the efficacy and cost effectiveness of traditional yoghurt and probioticin the treatment of acute childhood diarrhoea. Material and Methods: Children aged between three months to five years admitted with some dehydration due to acute diarrhoea were included. Children were randomised in to two groups comprising of 50 cases in each group, intervention group received traditional yoghurt and control received market available probiotic. Results: Data was analysed with the help of SPSS version 16 and the continuous data were compared by Students ‘t’ test. The chi-squared test or Fischer’s exact test was used to test the difference between groups and statistical significance was considered as p ≤ 0.05. There was no significant difference between probiotic and traditional yoghurt when time of appearance of first semi formed stool {46.70 ± 14.40 Vs 50.64 ± 13.40 hours}, amount of stool passed per 24 hours {155.74 ± 74.27 Vs 167.53 ± 109.58 grams}, mean numbers of stools {6.29 ± 1.94 Vs 7.22 ± 2.63} and mean weight gain {121.94 ± 94.21 Vs 113.29 ± 73.85 grams} were compared. However, treatment cost with traditional yoghurt was almost half (7.20 Indian Rupees (INR) /patient/day) as compared to Probiotics (15.60INR/patients/ day). Conclusion: Traditional yoghurt was equally efficacious to probiotics and the relative cost of traditional yoghurt was less than probiotic and is easily available at all places especially in the villages and rural areas of tropical countries. Keywords: Traditional Yoghurt; Probiotic; Acute Childhood Diarrhoea