Table 2.

Differential diagnosis of early onset persistent diarrhea.

Infectious and post-enteritis diarrhea
FOOD-SENSITIVE ENTEROPATHY OR ENTEROCOLITIS
Cow’s milk sensitive enteropathy (most frequent)
Celiac disease
Non-celiac gluten sensitivity
Food protein induced enterocolitis
Eosinophilic gastroenteropathy
ANATOMICAL DEFECTS AND DYSMOTILITY DISORDERS
Hirschsprung disease
Intestinal lymphangiectasia
Short bowel syndrome (post surgery)
Stagnant loop syndrome (post surgery)
Chronic intestinal pseudo-obstruction
TRANSPORT DEFECTS
Chloride-bicarbonate exchanger defect (chloride-losing diarrhea)
Sodium hydrogen exchanger (congenital sodium diarrhea)
Ileal bile acid receptor defect
Sodium-glucose cotransporter defect (glucose-galactose malabsorption)
Abetalipoproteinemia
Hypolipoproteinemia
Acrodermatitis enteropathica (zinc deficiency)
ENZYMATIC DEFECTS
Enterokinase deficiency
Disaccharidase congenital defect (lactase, sucrase-isomaltase)
PANCREATIC MALABSORPTION
Cystic fibrosis
Shwachman syndrome
PRIMARY EPITHELIAL CAUSES OF INTRACTABLE DIARRHEA
Microvillous inclusion disease
Tufting enteropathy
Heparan sulfate deficiency
IMMUNODEFICIENCIES (USUALLY UNMASKED BY A PATHOGEN)
Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID)
Thymic hypoplasia
Class II major histocompatibility (MHCII) deficiency
CD40 ligand deficiency
Neutrophilic specific granule defect
Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)
IBD (very rare in infancy, to be considered as a part of a PID)
METABOLIC DISEASES
Mitochondrial myopathy
Wolman disease
AUTOIMMUNE ENTEROPATHY