KIDNEY STONE IN CHILDREN

A kidney stone is a solid, pebble-like piece of material that can form in a child’s kidney when minerals in the urine are too high. Kidney stones rarely cause permanent damage if treated earlier.

CAUSES:

Most kidney stones are caused by high levels of calcium, oxalate, or phosphorus in the urine. These minerals are normally found in urine and do not cause problems at normal levels. Certain foods and beverages may increase the chances of having a kidney stone in children who are more likely to develop them. When children can’t move for a long time, for example when a child is in a cast after surgery, the chances of developing a kidney stone are higher. When children aren’t moving, their bones may release extra calcium into the blood

SYMPTOMS:

Symptoms of kidney stones in children include

• sharp pains in the back, side, lower abdomen, or groin
• pink, red, or brown blood in the urine, also called hematuria
• a constant need to urinate
• pain while urinating
• inability to urinate or can urinate only a small amount
• cloudy or bad-smelling urine
• irritability, especially in young children

The pain of a kidney stone may last for a short or long time or may come and go in waves. Along with pain, a child may have

• nausea
• vomiting

Other symptoms include

• fever
• chills

PREVENTION:

Drinking enough liquid, mainly water, is the most important lifestyle change a child or teenager can make to prevent kidney stones. A teenager should drink six to eight 8-ounce glasses a day, unless he or she has kidney failure. Younger children can follow their health care professional’s guidance on how much liquid to drink to prevent kidney stones.

Studies have shown that the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet can reduce the risk of kidney stones.   Studies have shown that being overweight increases a child’s risk of kidney stones. A dietitian can help plan meals to lose weight

HOMOEOPATHIC  TREATMENT:

CHAMOMILLA - Children must be carried. The nurse is compelled to carry the child all the time. And then there is the restlessness and capriciousness about the members of the family. The child goes two or three times up and down the room with the nurse, and then reaches out for its mother; goes two or three times up and down the room with her and then wants to go to its father. And so it is changing about. Never satisfied. It seems to have no peace. Insupportable pains in loins & hips. Pains seem unendurable, drives to despair < by heat, evening before midnight, with heat, thirst & fainting with numbness of affected parts, eructations <. Violent pains, drive him out of bed, compels to walk about. Over sensitive to pain, to open air. Cannot endure anyone near him, is cross, irritable, easily angered. So the Chamomilla patient is tossing in bed, if in bed; not an instant quiet. And along with all of these the same irritability; becomes violently excited at the pain angry at the pain; irritable about the pain; will scold about the pain the pain is so torturesome. Aversion to talk, and snappish. The patient is constantly sitting and looking within herself when pains are absent.

SARSAPARILLA --The child is always passing sand in its diaper, yellowish, or whitish like chalk; the child screams when it is about to urinate, because it remembers how painful the passing of urine is. Sometimes at the close of urination it gives forth an unearthly yell. This symptom is found in old broken down constitutions, a clutch in the bladder just as it shuts down causes him to carry out; pain at the end of urination. Involuntary urination of children at night in bed, in feeble children. There is a spasmodic condition of the sphincter when sitting to urinate, which makes the act impossible in that position, but when he stands up the urine flows freely. Passage of small calculi or gravel, renal colic, stone in the bladder. Excruciating pains from right kidney downwards. Severe almost unbearable pain at conclusion of urination. Urine bloody, scanty, slimy, flaky, sandy, copious, passed without sensation, deposits white sand. Painful distension & tenderness in bladder, urine dribbles while sitting, passes freely when standing. Air passes from urethra, child screams before & while passing urine.

LYCOPODIUM --Renal colic, right sided. Pain shooting across lower abdomen from right to left. Pain in back relieved by urinating. Urine slow in coming, must strain. Retension. Polyuria during night. Red sand in urine. Uric acid diathesis. Child cries before urinating. Pains drawing, aching < 4-8 pm. Upper part of the body emaciated, lower part semidropsical. Excessive accumulation of flatulence, lower abdomen. > warm food & drinks. Lycopodium clavatum Baby cries all day, sleeps all night. Red sand in urine, on child’s diaper ( Phosphorus ); child cries before urinating ( Borax ); pain in back, relieved by urinating; renal colic, right side. Children, weak, emaciated; with well-developed head but puny, sickly bodies.

HYDRANGEA -It is considered as a stone breaking remedy. Renal calculi, gravel, profuse deposit of white amorphous salts in urine. Renal colic, sharp pain in loins, especially left. Burning in urethra & frequent desire. Urine hard to start. Bloody urine, heavy deposit of mucus. Great thirst with abdominal symptoms & enlarged prostate.

OCCIMUM CAN. --Renal colic, right sided. Uric acid diathesis. Red sand in urine. High acidity, formation of spike crystals of uric acid. Turbid, thick, purulent, bloody, brick dust red or yellow sediment. Odour of musk. Pain in ureters, cramps in kidneys.

BERBERIS VULGARIS —Berberis vulgaris is one of the top remedies for renal stone colic. Here the pain is found on the left side of renal region There is stitching, cutting pain from left kidney following course of ureter into bladder & urethra. Burning & soreness in region of kidneys. Pain in small of back, very sensitive to touch in renal region <when sitting & lying, from jar, fatigue. Numbness, stiffness & lameness with painful pressure in renal & lumbar regions. Bubbling sensation in kidneys. Urine greenish, blood red, with thick, slimy mucus, transparent, reddish or jelly like sediment. Rheumatic & gouty complaints with urinary diseases. < motion, any sudden jarring movement, walking, carriage riding.

CANTHARIS --Constant urging to urinate, passing but a few drops at a time, which is mixed with blood. Intolerable urging before, during & after urination. Violent paroxysms of cutting & burning in whole renal region. Violent tenesmus & strangury. Urine scalds him & is passed drop by drop. Membranous scales looking like bran in water. Urine jelly like, shredy. Pain raw, sore, burning in every part, internally & externally. Over sensitiveness of all parts. Drinking even small quantities of water increases pain in bladder.