4 Month Daughter Diagnosed with Vesicoureteral Reflux - Help!

G.:

My daughter is 4, and just started her first year of antibiotics. It sucks, but you do what you have to do. We found the problem very late,and she has sustained minor kidney damage. You are lucky it was caught early. Highly likely she will outgrow it since she is so young. Don't worry. This is fairly common, and not very serious.

I'm so sorry to hear about your DD. My sister in Michigan has a 4yr old that was diagnosed w/ the same about a yr ago. She is giving her DD the antibiotic only every other day. The problem w/ this treatment is that the antibiotic strips all the GOOD bacteria out of her system in order to try to prevent her from getting a UTI. Since your DD is so young, and she can't tell you if she's feeling sick from a UTI, I guess I might go ahead w/ the treatment. However, being on antibiotics like that, constantly, will really deplete her immune system. She will be very susceptible to illness. And when she needs vaccinations, she may have the kinds of reactions that you aren't always told about (the scary kinds of adverse reactions, not just redness and soreness at the injection site).
If you give her the antibiotics, you should have her on a regimine of probiotics to counteract the anti's, to help strengthen her immune system (or lack thereof at this young age -- Dr.s suggest that a child's immune sys is not mature like an adults until the age of 3 at the earliest, perhaps as late as the age of 5yrs old).
I recommend contacting my lactation consultant (regardless of whether you breastfeed or not), whom I learned a TON of information from re probiotics, the right brands, the right kinds, the right amount, etc. She can also educate you with information on other herbs that your baby can take (if applicable, I don't know for sure if there's anything else). Janet T., in Naperville ###-###-####
BEST WISHES...

I don't know much about this condition, but I would definitely recommned seeking a second opinion for your own peace of mind. You may be amazed at how different two doctors recommendations are, or they may be the same and put your mind at ease. Good luck.

my children do not have this however, I work as a nurse in a peds office and there are many who do. Most are doing very well.

I just wanted to encourage you to check into giving her some probiotics if she's going to need antibiotics.

My 5 1/2 year old was dainosed with the same (stage 5) when she was 3yrs. old. we have been on the low dosage antibiotics for 2 years now. no side affects and no uti's. we just did our 3rd VCUG in Nov. Not much improvement, in fact last year's looked better. our dr. (a very good pediatric urologist in the NW suburbs)is very possitive and does not like to rush in to surgery and pretty much says the same about out growing it. we are waiting until next year's to really see what is going on. we also did the test that shows if there is any kidney damage...and there is(very small). she is a very happy and VERY active little girl. this has not affected her in any way. the antibiotics are such a low dose. i worried about he developing an alergy for it. the assured me it is so low, it's just to keep her uti free. good luck with yor little one! please feel free to get back to me :o)

My daughter has gotten lots of uti's. She has been to er's, pediatricians, hospitals, urgent cares, and finally her primary care doctor decided it needs to be further tested. She is 4 and had an ultra sound of her kidney and VCUG done. They diagnosed her with a vesicoureteral reflux. She is now being seeing by a pediatric urologist. The doctor says she needs surgical correction with ureteral reimplantation. She has to stay on antibiotics until the surgery and 3 months after. I am very scared and its all happened so fast. I hope this has helped someone and any advice or tips for me is appreciated. Thanks!

Hey, I know it sounds terrible, but it doesn't hurt your little one at all, they don't know anything is wrong.

My son had this and YES, he did outgrow it. It's a pain to give liquid antibiotics everyday but we were at least given that good-tasting pink stuff, so he didn't mind it too much. He was diagnosed with the kidney part of it in utero and the reflux portion after he was actually born. But it really did completely heal itself by the time he was 6 months old, so hopefully your daughter's will resolve itself as well. If not, there is a fairly minor surgery they can do to repair it...and we know someone who had to get the surgery at age 4. She was back to playing in just a few days and didn't seem bothered at all by her experience, which I found very reassuring. But they like to wait until the kid is a few years old because it's common enough that they have seen how it often heals itself without assistance.

Best of luck and try not to worry, it's not as bad as it sounds! :)

G. - the news about your daughter is alarming. I have assisted parents with this condition and have found often they do grow out of it, I always recommend that kids who are on long term antibiotic be sure to have a constant reliable source of friendly bacteria to restore the gut that is destroyed by this drug. I can offer some quality product for you if you are interested.

My daughter was diagnosed with VUR at 3 1/2 months old. She has recently grown out of it (she's 2 1/2). We did the VCUG and ultrasounds 3 times with her and each year she got better and better. She started out at a grade 3 on both sides. Then the following year she went down to a grade 2 on her right side and completely gone on the left. Down to nothing this year. She was on antibiotics since she was 3 1/2 months old until just recently. You may have to get your son checked with an ultrasound since it is a hereditary thing. We did and my son was fine. You'll get through it, just remember to give her the meds everyday and you'll be fine.

My daughter had the same condition. She was on antibiotics for about a year and tested out at the age of 3. During this time, we had a few hospital stays due to dehydration and whenever she had a fever, we had to take her to the dr. She was tested often for uti's as well. I was told it is very common but it was quite scary for us. Good luck!

was this not detected in your ultrasounds? I am 24 weeks pregnant and our ultrasounds reveal our child has the same problem. He may need surgery or anitbiotics also. I was deveastated at first, but have calmed down....its really not that big of a deal compared to other problems.

I had it and both my sons have it. What you described is a normal treatment course.
My baby (11 months) was diagnosed with grade 5 - bilateral at birth. He has been on antibiotics every day of his life and is doing wonderfully.
I was on antibiotics for a good portion of my life too. Just keep her infection free and she will be fine and have a long normal life.... I promise.

My niece was diagnosed with VUR when she was an infant. She was on antibiotics for 1 1/2 years, had 4 VCUG tests, and 5 ultrasounds. Now she just has yearly checkups. Hope this helps!

I have a 5 year old daughter who has suffered from (VUR) since she was 3 months old.She had Reflux in both kidneys Right kidney at a level 5 the left at a level 4, so this was high reflux.We have been in and out of doctors for the kidney scans and VCUG,ultrasounds,Renal scans..etc. I know this is scarey thing to hear that your child has, I think the reason is because the infections can cause damage to the kidneys.

The year of 2008 we found out a grade 5 fixed itself completly (WOW) only 1 out ten that will happen to and the level 4 went down to a 3 So chances of that fixing is slim by age almost 4.

This past summer we had our first UTI infection since she was 3 months, and of course it will always come with a very high fever. I knew something was wrong, I knew the medicne became resistant, and the infection was able to break through the meds. Well as we know there is always a scare of "scarring" that's a harsh word to hear. We did another renal kidney Scan to show if there was damage.The results showed she did show scarring and damage to the left kidney, My heart dropped. I thought what did we do wrong how didnt we prevent this? YOu cant though, But all I can tell you is that to always get your child checked for any fever no matter what cause it can be a UTI and you dont know it, the earlier detection the better!. My daughter will be having surgery to hopefully fix the reflux but the damage will never go away. The surgery minmually invasive isnt 100% the open surgery is 70-80% but who want ts to get cut open.

My daughter is now well aware of her condition and has been through a lot of testings, but I look at it for her own good.Advice I can give is your situation might not be anything like mine but I can relate and understand the fear and concerns you have. ALways ask doctors all the questions before test or visits you need to know for you and your child, And yes they can grow out of this to. Another piece of advice go along with your life everyday cause you can worry about something you cant fix.Just do the doctor visits and tests and meds and you'll be okay.

My daughter was diagnosed with, in layman terms, kidney reflux at 9 months. If this is the same as your daughter's condition, the following is our experience. It is worrying but it sounds like your Dr. is top-notch because the information provided to you was the same provided to me and our Dr. was outstanding. We were told that her left kidney reflux was worse than the right. They had a number scale on which they rated each "renal valve" and her condition was average. It was explained to us that every time she got an infection it scarred her kidneys and the kidneys couldn't regenerate the tissue that was damaged. So it was very important to ensure that the infections were taken care of. That meant antibiotics. A low dose every day became routine. I was worried about resistance build up and that it could lead to more severe infections elsewhere in her body like her ears and in the future. Our Dr. explained that different antibiotics are used for different infections because each infection is caused by different kinds of bacteria. The Dr. said the antibiotics for ear infections would be different than the ones used for the urinary problem. Indeed, our Dr. stressed that the potential damage to her kidneys was more important than any concerns about longish term low dosage use of antibiotics. Our daughter had her second testing at 15 months and just like the Dr. predicted her renal valves had strengthened on their own and she had outgrown the condition - so no more antibiotics. She is currently a healthy, cheeky and active 5 year old who doesn't remember anything about the medicine or the invasive tests. So in all likelyhood your daughter will outgrow the condition as well! If not in one year, then hopefully the next! The tests were the worst part of the condition in my opinion. I hope they come up with a virtual exam soon. Hope our experience eases some of your concerns and worries. Isn't it great to be a mom!!