Kidney stones are more common in children, according to a pediatrician at Johns Hopkins Children’s Centre in Baltimore.
“More and more children with kidney stones came to us”, said kidney specialist Dr. Alicia Neu, co-director of the kidney stones clinic at the Children’s Centre,
Some of them came with various problems, Such as intense pain at their waist, frequent urination with pain, cloudy urine, blood in the urine, urinary tract infection with fever, etc. All this symptoms is closely related in developing stage of kidney stones.
“Although this is a bit of a surprise, it is not entirely surprising, there are so many other conditions for children which is caused by poor diet, such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, obesity and name a few,” she said.
Pediatrician agreed that major causes that push the number of renal calculi upward is the children probably consume too much salt and too little water. In simple solution, the best way to avoid the most common kidney stones or slow down the growth is to restrict salt diet and drink plenty of water.
Reduce sodium intake, eating no more than 240 grams of sodium or 1 teaspoon of salt each day. Also stay away from soft drinks, salty snacks, canned food and food processing in order to reduce the sodium content. Check the label and find label that claims, “Low sodium” or “No salt added”. Also aware that coffee, tea, dark chocolate, nuts, spinach and wheat bran also can triggered and increase the risk of certain types of kidney stones.
As precaution steps, children should drink at least two to litters of water a day (around 64 ounces). Loaded with sugar juice and soft drinks are not a substitute for water. Actually we can determine when children drinking enough water or not by watch their urinary habit closely. If the children needs to urinate came in every three hours it’s called normal. But if it less frequent urination it might be a sign of dehydration and increase their risk in developing of kidney stones.
Compile and re-written based on article by HealthDay News
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