ReSoMal Oral: Rehydration Guidance
ReSoMal guidance for prevention and treatment of dehydration in children with complicated acute malnutrition only.
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Source reviewed
November 2022
Guide category
Oral drugs
Safety boundary
Prescription medicine information for clinician-guided use.
Kenza Health Hub presents this medicine page as structured health education. Check dose, route, interactions, pregnancy or breast-feeding considerations, and local protocol with a qualified clinician or pharmacist. Read our medical editorial policy.
Therapeutic action
Oral rehydration salts with high potassium and low sodium contents.
Indications
Prevention and treatment of dehydration, in children suffering from complicated acute malnutrition only.
Forms and strengths
- Sachet containing 84 g of powder, to be diluted in 2 litres of clean, boiled, and cooled water.
Dose and duration
Prevention of dehydration
- Child: 5 ml/kg after each loose stool as long as diarrhoea persists.
- Child under 5 kg: 25 ml.
- Child 5 to 9 kg: 50 ml.
- Child 10 to 19 kg: 100 ml.
- Child 20 kg and over: 200 ml.
Treatment of some dehydration
- Child: 20 ml/kg/hour for 2 hours orally or by nasogastric tube.
- If improvement occurs, reduce to 10 ml/kg/hour until there are no signs of dehydration and or target weight is reached, then change to prevention of dehydration.
Treatment of severe dehydration
Only if there is no circulatory impairment and rehydration by oral route or nasogastric tube is tolerated.
- Child: 20 ml/kg/hour for 1 hour orally or by nasogastric tube.
- If improvement occurs, continue with 20 ml/kg/hour for 2 hours, then reduce to 10 ml/kg/hour as for some dehydration.
Contra-indications, adverse effects, precautions
- Do not use the powder if it has turned sticky.
- Once prepared, the solution should be used within 24 hours.
- Do not administer to patients with cholera or uncomplicated acute malnutrition: use standard ORS instead.
- Closely monitor rate of administration.
- May cause fluid overload and heart failure when administered too rapidly.
Source
MSF Essential drugs practical guidelines (January 2026)
This page combines source-derived medicine reference sections with Kenza editorial context, while leaving out the Storage and Remarks sections from the source batch.
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