Urinary Tract Infection Information

My five year old daughter was hospitalized with a UTI at 6 weeks. After many tests, including a VCUG and Renal Sonogram, she was diagnosed with Urinary Reflux. Her ureters were not strong enough to keep the urine from flowing back up into the kidneys from the bladder, which can cause infections. We finally went home 10 days later, due to the infection going septic and getting into the blood stream, with Ally on nightly lose dose Bactrim (antibiotic) and precautions to be extra careful with wiping her bottom and such.

We were seen in the hospital by Dr. Walter Snodgrass, he works out of Plano Presby and Dallas Childrens, and kept seeing him follow-ups. He is very good with the kids and willing to talk with you until all of your questions have been answered to your satisfaction.

UR can sometimes resolve itself. The only real way to test for it is with a VCUG (they catheterize the bladder then inject a substance in to watch the flow of urine). Ally's UR just didn't seem to want to go away and it was getting more and more traumatic to have her annual VCUG done, so two years ago when she was about 3 1/2 we had what is called a Deflux procedure performed. Very simply put, they injected a sugar type substance at the end of each ureter to form a bulge or flap. The bulge allows urine out but not back in. 3 months later after one last follow up VCUG we got the news that she was reflux free. To todays date, no more infections knock on wood. Hopefully this is not what is going on with your daughter, but I wanted to pass on that I understand how scary this can be and that there are ways to resolve it. Please feel free to email me if you have any other questions.

1 mom found this helpful

Dear R.,

I was born with dual ureters from each kidney to my bladder. I am 43 yrs. old. In 2004 I had my right kidney removed due to chronic kidney infections. Her reflux could be caused by a dual collecting system. You need to ask her Urologist if its possible. With the proper treatment she will live a long happy life.

R., I am so sorry your going through all of this. I suffered from bladder infections my entire life. I am now 40 and have not had one in a year. I have been through the whole urologist route and surgery when I was three years old.
Last year I went to see a Homopathic doctor to see if there was anything else I could do to avoid infections and problems with my bladder. He suggested I try Mannose & botanicals U.T. Vibrance. It is available at Whole Foods. Most urinary tract infections are caused by E.coli bacteria invading the urinary tract. Mannose lures the e coli away from the tissues, allowing it to be passed with the urine. Whole cranberry and blueberry juice and teas have been shown to nutritionally support healthy U.T. function by inhibiting the ability of E. coli to adhere to the lining of the urinary tract.
It is virtually taste free add it to her juice or water. I swear by it. I have never felt such relief and for the long term. I strongly recommend this along with her doctor's medical care. It has been a life saver for me. You need to find out as well what might be the triggers for her. Mine are chocolate and orange juice, can't do either one of those without developing irritation while urinating and than soon to follow urinary tract infection. All you can do is try until you find some relief for that precious little girl. Remember this is all natural and can be used on a daily basis for a healthy bladder.

My oldest daughter was diagnosed with the same thing when she was 6 weeks old, i took her to the ER with 103.6 temp and she stayed in the hospital for 1 week. She has had countless VCUG's (the x-ray where they fill the bladder with dye) and I could not stay in the room when they did the catheder. We became experts at putting the plastic collecting bag on her to test her urine every so often. It is horrible to go through and they will put her on medicine to keep the infections clear, of course the antibiotic does not keep the urine from backing up to the kidneys, it just makes sure the urine is not infected. My daughter had a grad IV on one side and Grade V on the other. She was on medication till about 3 years of age as i did not want to do surgery. Grade V is the worst and she is now 7 and cleared from the urologist. she just got cleared last year as they check their kidneys annually to make sure they are growing properly in size. I would not give into surgery right away, i would wait to see if they outgrow it as mine did. Also, keep an eye on the medication they get for the reflux as mine was allergic to Septra which is a sulpher based antibiotic and had hives from head to toe after two weeks of taking it.

if you need to see a urologist, i would HIGHLY recommend Dr. Pinto in fort worth, he is WONDERFUL and he explains thing so well to you. he is hard to get into because he is so good but he is so worth it.

My second daughter was checked due to her sister having it but she is good, Any other children you have will need to be checked but now a days they can catch it while you are still pregnant.

Email if you have any other questions. Also, there is an over the counter Urinarty tract infection test now that is much like a pregnancy test that works well....

____@____.com

O.

My daughter had the same problem with kidney reflux, but it didn't start to show till she was almost a year. It was very painful for her, but antibiotics will get rid of the UTI pretty quickly. She went to a urologist and they did a dye test to see how her urine flows and because hers wasn't that severe, they said with meds, the problem will probably correct itself with in a year. She had to take meds once a day for just under a year, but everything is normal now and she hasn't had a UTI since(she is three now). Good Luck!!

I personally had this experience. My first UTI--I had no idea what it was. I thought it would go away, so it got so bad I ended up with a 104 temp. It eventually became a bladder infection, and I had to get meds from the doc. After that, it went away, but now I recognize the signs. I wasn't good about getting myself to the doctor (before kids). It's good that ya'll have gotten her to the doctor soon.

My daughter had the exact same thing when she was about 3 months old. She had reflux into her right and left kidney causing infection. She was put on a low dose antibiotic and we were told that she would have to have surgery if she didn't outgrow the reflux. Luckily she did outgrow the problem and did not require surgery. She is now 13 and doing just fine. As I am prone to UTI's (urinary tract infections) myself I have started both of us on a new nutritional beverage that seems to help everything work correctly.
I know it is scary with little ones, we were orininally told that they thought she had spinal meningitis and she had to have a spinal tap. It was rough...but thank God everything turned out just fine.

Best of Luck,
C.

R.,
This is one of those things that when I do phone triage I am always on the look out for. Little ones do get UTI's quite often- the usual course of treatment when the cause is reflux is a preventative antibiotic given daily. Most of the time children outgrow this condition.

I know it is scary, but it is something easily followed and treated.

D.

My daughter had the same problem but was not diagnosed until 3 1/2. It's called vesicoureteral reflux (VUR for short) and you can find lots of info on it online and at www.webmd.com . The worst part is the test to diagnose the severity. They must hold her down on an xray table, incert a catheter and inject a dye into her bladder (making it VERY full) while taking xrays. Then they want her to empty her bladder (pee on herself) on the table while taking more xrays. This is VERY difficult to watch but if your daughter needs it her young age should help a lot. Then based on the severity, the urologist would suggest antibiotics or sugery. My daughter needed the surgery and it was really not as bad as we thought it would be (poor thing looked like she had a C-section!). She's been fine ever since. You may need to have your older daughter checked as well. Supposedly, about 45% of siblings of children with VUR have it as well. Let me know if you have any other questions, I can go into more details if you need me to! Good luck to you and your babies!

There is a woman with triplets in my mothers of multiples group that just had the same diagnosis for one of her triplets. In her situation they are keeping her daughter on a low dose of antibodics to keep infection from the reflux at bay until she gets a little bigger and at that time they will do a surgery to fix the kidney reflux. I wish I had first hand knowlege to pass along to you - but thought I'd mention this since I had not heard of kidney reflux until our triplets mom had it with her baby and so your posting caught my attention. I could probably get you in touch with her if you would like to speak with her about it.

-TwinMom