Acute alcohol intoxication in a two-month-old baby.

Abstract

A 2-month-old, well developed, healthy boy, weighing 5.55 kg, was fed 200 ml of bottle-milk containing 65 ml of sake. So-called kanzamashi (sake boiled in the evening and remaining in a bottle overnight,) was mistaken for yuzamashi (water boiled and left to cool), and used to prepare a 15% formula milk. About 10 minutes later, the baby became flushed, began to breath hard, and lose consciousness, and an alcoholic odor was noticed. He was brought to our clinic, where gastric lavage and parenteral fluid therapy were started. On admission, his main physical signs were, whole body had become red, unconsciousness, alcoholic odor, tachycardia and tachypnea, without low body temperature, while his remarked laboratory findings were metabolic acidosis, hyperglycemia, and high A/G ratio. Moreover, a transient proteinuria, alternately followed by a transient glycosuria, appeared within the course. About 10 hours later, he showed an obvious improvement in both physical and laboratory findings. As an explanation of these changes in his condition due to alcohol ingestion, we speculated that a metabolic acidosis with hyperglycemia caused the disturbed reabsorption in his renal tubulus, which revealed alternating proteinuria and glycosuria.