New research revealed that apple juice can stop stomach aches and pains among children under five.
According to doctors, apple juice diluted with water is ideal for treating mild gastroenteritis in children and better than many over-the-counter products.
Children suffering stomach pains and mild dehydration experienced fewer issues and needed less hospital treatment when given half-strength apple juice, followed by their preferred fluid choice, compared with children who received other fluid-loss solutions.
Usually an electrolyte maintenance solution is used to treat and prevent dehydration caused by gastroenteritis, although it is quite expensive and young kids often hate the taste. Plus, its advantage in mildly dehydrated children is unproved.
A team from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, studied 647 children ages six months to five years old who came to a local emergency department with mild dehydration from gastroenteritis.
One in two of the children were given half-strength apple juice followed by their favourite drink and half received an apple-flavoured electrolyte solution.
Twenty-five per cent of the kids who drank the electrolyte solution still needed intravenous fluids or other additional treatment, compared to only 17% of those who drank apple juice followed by their favourite drink.
Two-year-olds and older children responded best to apple juice, but even the younger group fared slightly better with apple juice than with the electrolyte solution.
"These results challenge the recommendation to routinely administer electrolyte maintenance solution when stomach pains and diarrhoea begins," said study lead Dr Stephen Freedman.
The findings were published online by the Journal of the American Medial Association.
