Chronic diarrhea of infancy

Chronic diarrhea (alternate spelling: diarrhoea) of infancy, also called toddler's diarrhea, is a common condition typically affecting up to 1.7 billion children between ages 6–30 months worldwide every year, usually resolving by age 4.^[1][2] According to the World Health Organization (WHO), diarrheal disease is the second greatest cause of death in children 5 years and younger. Diarrheal disease takes the lives of 525,000 or more children per year.^[2] Diarrhea is characterized as the condition of passing of three or more loose or watery bowel movements within a day sometimes with undigested food visible. Diarrhea is separated into three clinical categories; acute diarrhea may last multiple hours or days, acute bloody diarrhea, also known as dysentery, and finally, chronic or persistent diarrhea which lasts 2–4 weeks or more.^[2] There is normal growth with no evidence of malnutrition in the child experiencing persistent diarrhea. In chronic diarrhea there is no evidence of blood in the stool and there is no sign of infection. The condition may be related to irritable bowel syndrome.^[1] There are various tests that can be performed to rule out other causes of diarrhea that don't fall under the chronic criteria, including blood test, colonoscopy, and even genetic testing.^[3][4] Most acute or severe cases of diarrhea have treatment guidelines revolving around prescription or non prescription (also known as over the counter or OTC) medications based on the cause, but the treatment protocols for chronic diarrhea focus on replenishing the body with lost fluids and electrolytes, because there typically isn't a treatable cause.^[5]