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Kidney Diseases In Children

Chronic kidney illness of any kind in children is the most unwelcome news for any parent in the world. They subject children to lonely childhoods blighted with frequent illnesses and regular hospital visitations. A child who is supposed to grow happily is instead left attending hospital operations most of the time. The parents are not any better off as they are angry and depressed not to mention the high costs that they will have to incur in meeting the hospital bills.

For this reason and many others, it is of paramount importance that a parent learns to cope with these kidney diseases so that they can instill hope and courage in their children. It is important that they teach their children that these are normal diseases that can affect anyone so that their children may find the strength to grow up. They should make their children know that this is not the end of life and instead show them how to treat the disease including what drugs to take at when the symptoms are seen.

Kidney ailments in children may be acute or chronic.

Below are some of the kidney problems that children are likely to suffer from:

Hemolytic uremic syndrome

The above affects children mostly under the age of ten years.

This is a rare disease and one which has high chances of causing kidney failure. When a child eats foods that are contaminated with bacteria, they may get an infection of the digestive system. This causes diarrhea and vomiting. The child becomes restless and pale after the symptoms have subsided. The toxic substances produced by these bacteria may damage the kidney, leading to acute kidney failure. Children with this condition often need blood transfusion.

Nephrotic syndrome

A child with this condition tends to urinate less often, and the water left in the body causes swelling in the eyes, legs and the stomach. The small amount of urine that the body makes is concentrated and contains high levels of proteins. A healthy kidney will keep the protein in the blood but a defective one leaks the protein in the urine.

This condition is normally treated with prednisone to prevent the leakage of protein into the urine. The child is supposed to take small doses of prednisone and eventually come back to normalcy without permanent damage to their kidneys.

Detection of these diseases will help in mitigating their effects.

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