URINARY TRACT INFECTIONS IN CHILDREN
posted by admin in General health
Symptoms: Frequent, urgent, or painful urination; dribbling of urine; bedwetting; inability to control urination; abnormal urine; fever; abdominal or back pain; chronic diarrhea; vomiting; redness of external genitals.
Home care: Do not attempt home treatment If symptoms are present the child should see a doctor.
Precautions
- Urinary tract infection (UTI) is ten times more common in girls than in boys.
- Home treatment of a UTI can cause a low-grade, chronic infection.
- A urine sample should be collected at the midpoint of urination.
- An infant suspected of having a UTI should be examined at once to find the underlying cause of the infection.
Infections of the urinary tract (UTIs) are common during childhood and occur ten times more frequently in girls than in boys. About 5 percent of all girls will have one or more urinary tract infections before reaching maturity.
In many cases, except during infancy, there is no physical abnormality to account for the development of a urinary tract infection. However, in 5 percent of the girls and over 50 percent of the boys the UTI is due to an underlying anatomical abnormality somewhere along the urinary tract that results in a partial or total block in the flow of urine. Most UTIs are caused by germs, such as E. coli bacilli, that do not cause disease in other locations. E. coli bacilli live harmlessly in the bowels of all children and adults but cause infection when they enter the urethra (the tube that leads to the urinary bladder). Other causes of UTI are inflammation of the vagina, foreign bodies in the bladder or urethra, and possibly severe constipation.
The urinary tract is a series of interconnected tubes, and an infection in one part easily spreads to another. For this reason, this discussion does not distinguish among infection of the collecting basins of the kidneys (pyelonephritis and pyelitis), infection of the bladder (cystitis), and infection of the urethra (urethritis).
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