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Toddler and Children Urinary Tract Infection

Tess Thompson

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Infants and children are equally, if not more, at risk of developing symptoms of UTI. Providing urinary tract infection cure to infants and younger children is difficult as they are unable to speak or tell correctly the type of problem they are facing. In many cases, symptoms of a urinary tract infection in children tend to get ignored or are ascribed to another cause. Diagnosis of UTI in infants and children is based mostly on external visible symptoms on the basis of which clinical investigation and tests are done.

Children are most likely to have fever and no other accompanying symptoms of UTI. However, persistent fever due to inexplicable reasons, involuntary urination or defecation, and slower than normal growth are indicative symptoms of UTI in toddlers and children. While consulting a doctor for bladder infection treatment or urinary tract infection cure for infants and children, any change in the child’s urinary pattern must be reported for a correct diagnosis.

Baby girls using diapers are more prone to get UTI than baby boys. In girls, the distance between the anus and meatus (the outside opening of the urethra) is short and as stool remains long within the diaper, there are more chances of bacteria entering the urethra and move upwards after multiplying. Also, in girls, during toilet training, wiping which is usually from back to front tends to push bacteria nearer the meatus.

UTI occurs in infants, both boys and girls, as a consequence of some abnormality that they maybe born with. This, is many cases, has to be surgically corrected.

For proper treatment of UTI in children the first step is to establish whether it is there or not. For this purpose a sample has to be collected in a particular manner that will lead to a correct diagnosis indicating whether bladder infection treatment or urinary tract infection cure is required or not. A sample of urine collected in a sterile cup without ensuring that it is free from bacteria from skin does not always give a correct report in the lab investigation.

A proper sample is available only on controlling urine for a while, cleaning the entire area around meatus with an antiseptic, and then letting out some urine before actually collecting a sample in a sterile cup. Infants and children are not likely to cooperate in this procedure. For toddlers and young children a different method is employed. One way is to tape a bag to the meatus and genitals but again, this does not ensure that the sample is not contaminated with skin bacteria.

Another method is that the doctor collects urine sample directly from the bladder using a sterile catheter, The second method sounds cruel but is the best and the only way to collect a sample of a child’s urine that will ensure proper diagnoses and correct urinary tract infection cure.
Recent studies have shown that children who get repeated UTI’s lack proteins called immunoglobulins which fight infections. Maybe in future scientists will be able to develop a vaccine which will prevent the frequent occurrence of UTI in children.