Rice protein and gut reactions in five infants
What it found
Five infants developed vomiting, diarrhea and dehydration after eating rice.
Doctors needed multiple hospital stays to figure out the cause.
What they found
Studies in people
Symptoms after eating rice
All five infants had vomiting, diarrhea and dehydration after eating rice. Their symptoms were so broad that doctors did not first suspect an allergy.
Hospital stays needed
Because the symptoms could point to many different illnesses, the babies needed a median of two hospital stays before doctors made the diagnosis.
How doctors confirmed it
An open food challenge, where the baby eats rice under supervision, was the only way to confirm the diagnosis. No other test could do this.
What the authors conclude
- They note that even foods thought to be unlikely to trigger allergies, like rice, can cause this gut reaction in babies.
- They advise doctors to consider this condition when infants have heavy vomiting and extreme tiredness after eating rice protein.
- They recommend using a supervised food challenge to confirm the diagnosis.
How it was done
A type of food allergy called enterocolitis syndrome usually happens with cow's milk or soy protein. The authors wanted to describe cases where it happened after babies ate rice, which had only been reported once before in Europe.
The authors looked back at medical records for five infants who got sick after eating rice. Because their symptoms matched many illnesses, doctors ran many tests. Finally, each baby was given rice under medical supervision to see if symptoms returned.
What it can’t tell you
- We summarised it from the abstract only.
- This report describes only five infants.
- It cannot show how often rice causes this reaction in all babies.
Who paid
- Authors work at
- Zagreb Children's Hospital, Croatia
The paper
- Title
- Rice protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome
- Type
- Case report
- Evidence
- Studies in people
- Summarised from
- Abstract only
- Cite
- Hojsak I, Kljaić-Turkalj M, Misak Z, Kolacek S (2006). Rice protein-induced enterocolitis syndrome. Clinical nutrition (Edinburgh, Scotland). doi:10.1016/j.clnu.2005.12.005PubMed 16697497DOI
Summary written 30 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error