1 Institute of Child Health, University of Birmingham, Francis Road Birmingham 16, England
2 Health Centre for Children, University of British Columbia, 715 W. 12th Avenue Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Kerry and Anderson have described a simple test for fecal reducing substances which uses Clinitest tablets and which is useful as a screening test to detect diarrhea that may be due to sugar malabsorption. Results of this test are graded from 0 to 4+ and values greater than 1+ in children are considered abnormal and strongly suggestive of the presence of intestinal malabsorption of sugar. Although sugar malabsorption can also be a serious problem in the neonatal period, there has been no adequate data to indicate whether Kerry and Anderson's test is similarly applicable to this age group, and there have been conflicting reports as to the amounts of sugars normally found in the neonate's stools.2, 3