Kidney diseases affect millions of people worldwide, including many children. Some children are born with a kidney disease and others develop it when still very young. The symptoms of kidney disease in children are often non-specific, which means that there is a risk that kidney problems may be missed in children.
There are kidney problems which can be detected in childhood which when treated appropriately would allow the growth of the children into normal adulthood. Some of these disorders, like Congenital PUJ obstruction, Posterior Urethral valves and Vesico-Ureteral reflux can be detected when the child is in the womb. These can be treated after childbirth, allowing normal growth of children.
Most of the kidney disorders are hereditary in children and may not have the usual symptoms like hematuria, hypertension and edema. Common symptoms which need to be evaluated are recurrent episodes of fever due to urinary tract infections, growth retardation, difficulty in urinating, blood in urine, hypertension in children, swelling of limbs and face due to fluid accumulation (edema) and mass in the abdomen. Though not very common, kidney stones are also seen in children which presents itself as pain in the flank or blood in urine.
Kidney disease that becomes evident in adulthood may occur more often in persons with risk factors that can be detected in childhood. It is therefore crucial that we encourage and facilitate education, early detection and a healthy lifestyle for children, starting at birth and continuing through to old age, to combat the increase of preventable kidney damage, including acute kidney injury and CKD and to treat children with inborn and acquired disorders of the kidney.
(The writer is Director and Professor and Head of department of Urology at Institute of Nephro-Urology, Bengaluru)
