Can a Uti Be a Sign of Being Pregnant
A urinary tract infection (UTI) is a bacterial infection in the urinary tract. UTIs can be dangerous to babies and toddlers, and it's important to call your doctor if you suspect your child has one. Common symptoms include crying while urinating, foul-smelling or cloudy urine, unexplained irritability, vomiting and diarrhea. The doctor will likely prescribe antibiotics if your child has a UTI.
What's a urinary tract infection?
A urinary tract infection (UTI) is a bacterial infection that can affect any part of the urinary tract.
The urinary tract includes:
- Kidneys, which make urine;
- Ureters, the tubes that carry urine from the kidneys to the bladder;
- Bladder, which stores urine until the body is ready to empty it; and
- Urethra, the tube that carries urine from the bladder out of the body.
Normally urine travels through the urinary tract without a hitch. But sometimes bacteria gets in the urine from the skin around the genitals or rectum or via the bloodstream. This can create infection and inflammation at any point along the way. An infection of the bladder is called cystitis, while an infection of the urethra is urethritis, and a kidney infection is pyelonephritis.
About 8 percent of girls and 2 percent of boys will have at least one urinary tract infection before the age of 7. During the first few months of life, though, UTIs are more common in boys than girls.
Are UTIs dangerous for babies and toddlers?
They can be. Urinary tract infections are usually easy to treat, but if left untreated, they can cause permanent kidney damage and even kidney failure.
Doctors say children under age 2 are more likely than older children to suffer serious damage, so it's especially important to catch and treat a baby or toddler's UTI as soon as possible.
Call your child's doctor if you suspect something is wrong.
What else can cause or lead to UTIs in babies and toddlers?
There are a number of other causes or practices that can lead to UTIs:
- Not emptying the bladder completely
- Waiting too long to urinate
- Constipation
- Poor toilet hygiene (such as wiping back to front in girls)
- Sitting in a wet diaper or bathing suit
- Tight-fitting pants
- Underpants not made of cotton
- Bubble baths and other soaps and detergents that can irritate the genitals and urethra
- Foods or beverages that cause bladder irritation, including chocolate, some spices, and caffeinated drinks
- Urinary blockages
- A condition called vesicoureteral reflux (VUR), in which urine from the bladder backs up into the kidneys (VUR is found in 30 to 40 percent of babies and young children who have UTIs)
- Family history of UTIs
How do I know if my baby has a UTI?
It can be hard to know if your baby has a UTI because many infants don't show obvious symptoms.
For many babies, an unexplained fever is the only obvious symptom. About 5 percent of babies who have a fever have a UTI. The lack of other noticeable signs is why so many UTIs in infants go undetected, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
In some cases, a baby may show other symptoms, with or without a fever:
- Crying or another indication that urination is painful
- Foul-smelling urine
- Cloudy or bloody urine
- Unexplained, persistent irritability
- Vomiting
- Refusal to eat
- Poor weight gain
- Diarrhea
How do I know if my toddler has a UTI?
Similar to babies, an unexplained fever may be the only obvious UTI symptom in toddlers. However, since toddlers are better able to communicate, they may help make you aware of other symptoms they are experiencing.
In addition to the UTI symptoms for babies listed above, a toddler may also have:
- A frequent, urgent need to urinate.
- Difficulty emptying bladder.
- Pain or burning while urinating.
- Daytime or nighttime accidents in a child who's toilet trained.
- Abdominal, side, or back pain.
- Fatigue.
- Chills.
How are UTIs diagnosed in babies and children?
To diagnose a UTI, your child's doctor will:
- ask about your baby or toddler's symptoms.
- physically examine your child.
- possibly ask about a family history of UTIs (the tendency to get them can be genetically inherited).
- collect a urine sample. The urine is tested to verify that your child has an infection, and to determine which bacteria are causing it so your doctor can prescribe the correct antibiotic.
- In some cases, your doctor may order additional tests.
Urine sample collection: what to expect
The doctor will need a "sterile" urine sample, one that hasn't been contaminated by the bacteria always present on your baby's skin. This is hard to do with a baby or young child who can't urinate on command or follow special instructions.
Here are the different ways your doctor may collect a urine sample.
- Cup while urinating: If your child is capable, you can help her provide a urine sample. The doctor or medical assistant will give you special wipes and tell you to use them to clean your child's genital area, wiping front to back. Then you'll need to catch some of the urine midstream in a little cup while your child is urinating. You may need to be patient – both in waiting for your child to pee and in working with her to get a clean catch.
- Catheter: If you have a baby or very young child, the doctor will most likely use a catheter to obtain a urine sample. He'll clean your baby's genitals with a sterile solution and then thread a tube, or catheter, up the urethra to get urine straight from the bladder. Your child may cry during this procedure, but it's safe and routine. Although it can be uncomfortable, it usually takes less than a minute.
- Needle: Another option, not used as often, is to collect urine directly from your child's bladder by inserting a needle into the lower abdomen.
After your doctor collects the urine sample, he may be able to get preliminary results by using a urine dipstick or by examining the urine under a microscope in the office. If he sees evidence of infection from these initial results, he may start treatment right away.
The doctor will then also send the urine sample to a lab for testing, to find out what type of bacteria is causing the infection. It may take up to three days to get the results.
Other UTI tests
In addition to taking a urine sample, the doctor may recommend other tests. He will do this if he suspects a UTI is signaling that there's something wrong with your child's urinary tract, such as a blockage or vesicoureteral reflux.
The tests that your baby's doctor may recommend include:
- Ultrasound, which uses sound waves to show a picture of the kidneys and bladder.
- Voiding cystourethrogram (VCUG), which shows whether urine is backing up from your baby's bladder into her kidneys. During a VCUG, X-rays are taken before a catheter is inserted into the bladder through the urethra. A liquid dye is put into the bladder through the tube, and more X-rays are taken to watch the dye as the bladder fills and as your baby urinates.
- Nuclear scans, which are similar to a VCUG but use radioactive liquids.
How do you treat a UTI in babies or toddlers?
Your doctor will probably prescribe antibiotics in either liquid or chewable form. You'll get instructions to give your child between one and four doses a day for up to two weeks, depending on the drug.
Even if your child starts to seem better in a few days, continue giving the medication until it's gone. If you don't, the bacteria causing the UTI might not be completely wiped out and the infection could come back stronger, making your child even sicker.
If your child is very ill and unable to eat or drink, he'll need to spend a few days in the hospital so he can receive medicine intravenously. Babies younger than 2 months old with UTIs may also need to be hospitalized for treatment.
What if the UTI is caused by a more serious problem?
If your baby has a blockage in her urinary tract, she may need surgery to correct it.
In some cases, surgery is also needed to correct VUR (see "What else can cause or lead to UTIs in babies and toddlers?" above), although many children outgrow the condition completely by age 6. In the meantime, your doctor may prescribe your child long-term, low-dose antibiotics to prevent recurring UTIs and to head off kidney damage.
Are there home remedies for UTIs in children?
If you suspect that your child has a UTI, it's important to make an appointment with your child's doctor right away in order to treat a possible infection with medicine and to reduce any chance of kidney damage.
At home, you can make sure your child is drinking plenty of fluids (ask your doctor how much they should be drinking) and urinating often. A heating pad on your child's back may help with pain.
Is there any way to prevent urinary tract infections?
Some children may just be prone to UTIs, but here are a few things you can do to minimize your baby's risk of infection.
- Hydrate: Be sure your child gets plenty of fluids. Fluids also help prevent constipation, which would make a UTI more likely. Drinking more will make your child urinate more frequently, flushing out the urinary tract. (Urinating every three hours or so during the day is a good goal.)
- Nurse: If you're breastfeeding, continue until your baby is at least 7 months old, if possible. Some studies have shown that nursing for this long may protect against UTIs – and that the benefits persist, even after weaning, for up to two years.
- Offer fiber-filled foods: If your baby has started solids, offer plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to help prevent constipation, which has been tied to recurrent UTIs. The same holds true for toddlers.
- Careful with soaps: If your baby or toddler is a girl, avoid harsh soaps and bubble baths (which can irritate her genitals).
- Wipe correctly: Wipe from front to back when you change your baby's diaper to minimize the bacteria in the area. If your child is toilet trained, teach her to do this herself.
- Empty bladder: If your child is toilet trained, remind her to empty her bladder completely each time she goes rather than hopping off the toilet before she's done. (Urine that stays in the bladder for a long time can accumulate bacteria, making an infection more likely.)
- Cranberry juice: Consider offering your toddler small amounts of cranberry juice. Some studies suggest this popular home remedy may help ward off recurring UTIs. However, there's no good evidence that cranberry juice is effective against an existing UTI.
Keep in mind that babies younger than 12 months shouldn't drink any fruit juice and toddlers from 1 to 3 years old should drink no more than 4 ounces of any type of juice each day – and never give her cranberry juice in place of antibiotics prescribed for a UTI.
Does being uncircumcised affect my infant's risk of UTIs?
Studies show that circumcision does offer some protection against UTIs, although experts haven't nailed down exactly why. Still, most uncircumcised infants do not develop UTIs. In fact, one large review study concluded that 111 circumcisions would be needed to prevent one UTI.
Is it true that bubble bath causes urinary tract infections in children?
There's no evidence that bubble bath causes urinary tract infections (UTIs), but parents are often cautioned not to use bubble bath because it can sometimes lead to UTIs.
Bubble bath or any kind of strong soap – even soapy water – can irritate the opening of a child's urethra. Once the urethra is irritated, it can become painful for a child to urinate, causing her to hold in urine and giving bacteria a place to grow.
Making sure your child wipes properly and drinks plenty of water (so she urinates regularly and doesn't get constipated) may do more to prevent UTIs than avoiding bubble baths.
But if your child seems prone to urinary tract infections, it's definitely a good idea to ban the bubbles. And if your child already has a UTI or inflammation around the urethra, a bubble bath is likely to aggravate the already sensitive skin. Ask your child's doctor if you're not sure whether to use bubble bath.
Can a Uti Be a Sign of Being Pregnant
Source: https://www.babycenter.com/health/illness-and-infection/utis-in-babies-and-toddlers-symptoms-and-causes_10910