Every adult I know has a certain fear of kidney stones. After all, we know that they could hurt – really badly. When we talk about kidney stones, however, our perceptions are normally limited to adults. This kind of thinking is being questioned by Dr. Caleb Nelson, a urologist at the Children’s Hospital in Boston. According to him, “There is very little available on pediatric stone disease in particular. Most data has looked at adults or the entire population.”
However, the absence of hard data does not mean that there are no incidences of kidney stones in children. In fact, Dr. Nelson, together with other experts, is certain that there are many children with the condition. They attribute this to various causes such as “sedentary lifestyle, obesity increase, processed high-salt diets. Some children get the stones, because birth defects in the urinary tract put them at risk for urinary obstruction. Another subset of children is premature infants who form stones related to the medications they require.”
What does this mean for the average person? If you have children, then you might want to take a closer look at their risk for kidney stones. Though experts say that there is not much that parents can do specifically to ensure that their kids do not get kidney stones, a great deal can be done by making sure that children have a healthy lifestyle and a balanced diet. And just like with adults, a healthy intake of non-caffeinated fluids can help.
Originally posted on September 21, 2008 @ 4:42 pm