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Could Your Child Have a UTI?
For several days, the parents of the 6-month-old girl I'll call Amber dutifully gave her the antibiotics that had been prescribed for her ear infection. But Amber didn't get better. She still had a fever, didn't eat much, and became listless. Her parents brought her to our emergency room at UMass Memorial Medical Center, in Worcester, where tests showed that this little girl was severely dehydrated, with a rapid heartbeat and low blood pressure -- signs of life-threatening septic shock.
Luckily, the doctors were fairly certain what was wrong. One physician inserted a thin plastic tube through Amber's urethra and into her bladder to collect a teaspoon of urine, which was abnormally cloudy. The lab soon confirmed the diagnosis: Amber had a urinary tract infection, or UTI.
UTIs are the most common serious bacterial infection in young children. They're caused by bacteria that climb through the body's plumbing system into the bladder and then up to the kidneys, and they're found in almost one in ten female infants and one in 30 male infants with a high fever. The infections often become serious because babies aren't able to tell anyone about the early mild symptoms like burning or painful urination. Today, pediatricians know it's critical to check the urine of babies and toddlers who have a high fever because otherwise they could miss the problem. Studies show that almost 4 percent of infants who were previously thought to have a fever from another illness such as an ear or a gastrointestinal infection had a UTI (it's possible they had both). When not treated promptly, bacteria can multiply and enter the bloodstream. From there, a UTI can permanently scar the kidneys, which can lead to high blood pressure and other long-term problems. And as with Amber, it can lead to life-threatening complications.
Related Features:
All About Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) >>
Smart Medicine: Preventing Overuse of Antibiotics >>
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I feel so bad right now. My son got a catheter at the pediatrician because he has had high fever for last three days. He does not have a UTI but he has been in pain for the last 5 hours. He is only 15 months. I dont know if I made the right decision. I had no clue that it would hurt him this much.
8/26/2011 11:49:22 PM Report AbuseAs a Mom of a girl that had a raging UTI I found the article to go the route that we had experienced with our 19 month old. I found it reassuring that we had done it all in cluding the VCUG which was negative. Thanks
7/15/2011 06:38:57 PM Report AbuseDr. Martin Altschul, who has a master's degree in statistics from MIT and an MD from Johns Hopkins said: "I found not a single confirmed case of UTI in a normal male infant. All of the confirmed cases occurred in infants who had clear-cut urinary birth defects." Besides, The Journal of Urology had this article "Post-Circumcision Carcinoma Of The Penis", "All patients in this series had penile carcinoma in circumcision scars."
5/18/2011 07:41:02 AM Report AbuseBreastfed babies have oligosaccharides in their urine which helps protect against UTIs. Breastfeeding is, in my opinion, a more humane way to protect a baby from infection than circumcision.
5/18/2011 06:30:41 AM Report Abuse@darshaksa: 10 times as many sounds frightening, but UTIs are so rare that it makes very little difference in practice. By the circumcision advocates' own figures, you'd have to circumcise hundreds of babies to prevent one UTI.
5/18/2011 02:27:30 AM Report AbuseHaving followed Parents magazine for decades, I have found it woefully conservative in favor of traditional medicine and parroting what the medical industry wants. It's shameless that the writer dredges up the nonsense that circumcision minimizes urinary tract infections. As a man cut as a newborn without my consent -- long resented -- I pledged early on to NEVER allow that done in my family. Circumcision violates babies' human rights, self-determination and body integrity.
5/17/2011 10:07:00 PM Report Abuse"many peer reviewed scientific papers" that are almost two decades old? Even if the whole "10-fold" bit were true, cutting off a body part to prevent a UTI is ridiculous. Girls have a higher chance of getting a UTI and no one is saying that it's because girls are uncircumcised.
5/17/2011 07:07:07 PM Report Abuseoh my word, you are using research studies dated from over 17 years ago..are you kidding me???? we've already seen all the other research studies that promoted circumcision fell apart after they realized the information was not valid, so much so that no medical association in the world recommends infant circumcision. Please stop posting false information, and start informing parents of the benefits of leaving their babies intact.
5/17/2011 07:02:55 PM Report AbuseI love Parents magazine and have been a subscriber for 5 years, but this article is terribly written and contains myths and opinions, not the facts that parents need. It is a myth that intact boys have a greater chance of getting UTI's than circ'd boys do. The skin is tightly fused for protection, which means bacteria cannot get underneath.
5/17/2011 06:46:20 PM Report Abuseyes I agree!!! as a mommy to a 15 month old baby boy who is intact..it really bothers me to see these articles full of false information. My baby is intact and has never once had a UTI, and keeping babies intact does not cause UTI's~ so it'd ridiculous to promote circumcising our precious babies over false information~ circumcision will NOT prevent UTI's.
5/17/2011 06:45:55 PM Report AbusePlease stop telling people that circumcision prevents UTIs! It's simply not true. Besides, girls get 10x the UTIs that boys do and it's a felony to circumcise them. You know what does help UTIs? Antibiotics. http://www.nocircmn.org/index_files/Page519.htm http://www.intactamerica.org/learnmore
5/17/2011 06:34:26 PM Report Abuse