Uti in Toddler

That is young to have a UTI. Be sure to clean and wipe her properly, from front to back. A little feces could cause an infection, and it is very important to keep little girls clean. Good luck and God Bless.

Hi E.,
I have an almost 9 yo daughter who had her first UTI as a toddler.

It is pretty normal for little girls to get UTI's. Especially as they are learning to wipe properly and paying attention to when they have to go. My daughter held it a lot as a way to control potty training. I know other kids do that sometimes.

Bubble baths can also attribute to little girls having UTI's - we stopped all bubble baths pretty early on.

She also could be having bladder spasms and that is easily treated with meds. My daughter had those and the way you can tell is to see if she is leaking in her undies on a regular basis. My daughter was older and could also tell me that she felt like she had to pee even after she already went. It might be a little harder with one so young.

Also, it is typical for little girls to have reflux which is what your doctor is wanting to find out. Basically, because of the way their little insides develop, when they pee a little bit of urine heads back up into the kidney. My daughter also has this.

I am so torn on what advice to give you. My mommy instinct says that if this is her first UTI to see if the doctor will treat this infection and then wait to see if any more appear. If so, then I would do further testing.

OR start with an ultrasound and then do the next test - VCUG is what it is called - if UTI's reoccur.

The ultrasound will be a good baseline to make sure all her organs are where they should be and it is completely painless - just some jelly on her belly!

The VCUG is more invasive - it is a test where they inject a dye through a catheter up her urethra to fill her bladder. Then they will have her pee and watch where the dye goes. If it goes back up into her kidney then she has reflux. The test is a little uncomfortable for them at first but really sounds much worse than it is. Here is a great link
http://www.dhmc.org/dhmc-internet-upload/file_collection/...

I would trust your instinct. My doctor says that most pediatricians are not recommending the VCUG until after the child has a second or third UTI.

Sometimes I wish I would have agreed to the VCUG right away but I waited. A recent test of her kidneys told us that she has had many more infections than we ever even knew about - she never showed symptoms of fever or pain.

I totally feel you pain. Please let me know if I can answer any more questions.

Go to the health food store, get UNsweetened cranberry juice and some liquid stevia (a natural sweetener that is not a sugar) give her a few ounces a few times a day.

If the stevia is not available or too expensive take the tart edge off the juice by mixing it with a little oj.

Also get her a chewable probiotic.

The Cranberry has a component that makes it difficult for infection to adhere to the inside of of the bladder.

Probiotics help balance the good flora in the body.

Have her drink as much water as possible & avoid sugars (including fruit juices refined flours & white potatoes) All these things turn right into sugar in the system and feed the infection.

This should help relieve some discomfort in a day or two.

Hang in there.

P. : )

It sounds like it is a UTI. Usually, they don't do scopes until the child has had two or more UTI's in a year since it is an invasive procedure. The scope the doctor is probably referring to is called a VCUG which involves catheterizing your child to place dye in the bladder, then taking x-rays to see if the dye backs up into the tube going from the bladder to the kidneys. If it does, then she will be prone to UTI's and will need to be on antibiotics every day until she outgrows it. They repeat the VCUG every year until she outgrows it. It took 4 years for my daughter to outgrow it. The important thing is, have her doctor refer you to a Pediatric Urologist for this. They specialize in children and know how to do these procedures more sensitive than how they would do these to adults. They know how to talk to children and will help you prepare your child for these.

Hi, my two year old has the same bday as yours ;)

From what I understand, an untreated UTI would cause a fever since it is an infection. Does your daughter have a fever? An antibiotic should clear it up. Im surprised the doc hasnt given her one.

Urinary tract infections in toddlers need to be checked out. The doc is waiting for the culture to determine what kind of bacteria is causing the infection and then will probably prescribe antibiotics that will clear up the infection. (Most uti in little girls are caused by E. Coli which is found naturally in the GI tract. The infection could be from poop that simply contaminated the opening to the urethra (opening to the tube that leads from the bladder to the outside) and this can be caused when a little girls wipe incorrectly. Always wipe from front to back after a bowel movement.) Or a bit of stool remains in her panties and then the bacteria travels up the tube leading to the bladder and causes infection. My first daughter of five girls had several repeated uti infections. We took her for the studies and sure enough, she had a structural problem called a reflux. This means the bladder was allowing urine to go back up to the kidney's. If this urine has bacteria in it, the bacteria can cause a kidney infection which is much more risky than a bladder infection. My daughter was on antibiotics for several years until she outgrew the problem. The tests the doc is talking about is probably a cystogram where a radiologist puts a tiny catheter up into the bladder and injects dye to see where and if a structural problem is apparent. Another test might be an IVP where the doc injects a dye through an IV and then x-rays the kidneys when the dye gets there. These tests sound horrible, but really don't take very long. Ways to prevent uti are: wiping correctly after a bm, no bubble baths, making sure the tub is clean before a bath, cutting down on sugary drinks and sugar in general, giving a diet of fresh fruits and veggies including berries (blue berries, etc if she isn't allergic to them).Not all children have fever from a uti. My daughter had the same symptoms as your daughter...the urge to go pee and then not peeing much and then having to go again very soon and not peeing very much again. She did have some burning when she peed. Just wait for the culture and see what doc says. If he/she is concerned, he/she will refer her to a pediatric urologist. Hope this helps.

They are probably looking for Kidney reflux which my daughter had but we didn't know it until she was 6. At that point she had lost most function in her left kidney and had 70% in her right because of scarring from all the infections she had. It sounds like they are staying on top of it and being proactive which I think is awesome! The tests they did on her was ones with die and MRI with sedation and several others that I can't remember the name of. She came through the surgery to fix it with flying colors and is doing very well. Might I add that she was also born with heart defects as well, so this may not be typical either.

Good luck.
W.

E.,

Our youngest daughter (she is 3 1/2) has Urinary Reflux. She had a lot of unexplained fevers from the time she was 8 months old until she was a little over 2. At that time she was able to tell us it hurt to pee. She had a high fever and, ultmately a UTI at that time. Given the number of such episodes over the previous year or so, we were sent for an ultra sound of her kidneys. That US was not normal and we were then sent to have a VCUG. Those test results confirmed the urninary reflux.

Given this seems to be your daughter's first UTI, I would be cautious in tests. This very well could be related to potty training and learning to wipe properly. The VCUG we had done was not pleasent for our daughter, or us for that matter. We followed through with about a year of treatment of a low dose daily antibiotic. We were told to stop that to see if she has outgrown the UR and she has done well.

We were scheduled to have another VCUG in March. However, we canceled the appointment b/c we didn't want to put her through the procedure again if we didn't feel it was necessary at that time.

All in all, if you and the doctor are concerned, I would request the least intrusive means of testing to begin with, such as an ultra sound (if your doctor will agree). Just our experience.

Good luck!

Yes, this happened to my daughter when she was only 12 months old. They will send you to the hospital and do a kidney ultrasound and use a catheder to run dye into her bladder to see if it's emptying correctly. Supposedly, this is the routine thing to do now when your child has their first uti. Yes , it's awful, but chances are nothing is wrong.it's very common for little girls to get this when they're potty training .