What are the symptoms of urinary tract infection in children?

Urinary tract infection is a very common disease of the human urinary system. It is mostly caused by not paying enough attention to the hygiene of the private parts, which leads to bacterial infection. People are also very prone to urinary tract infections in their early childhood, which can have many adverse effects on young children, such as fever, frequent urination, urgency, etc. There are many symptoms. Here we will introduce in detail the symptoms of urinary tract infections in young children.

Urinary tract infection is a common disease in clinical urology, which is caused by inflammatory infection. Urinary tract infection can occur at any age. When young children suffer from urinary tract infection, it is relatively difficult to diagnose because they cannot express it clearly. The main symptoms of urinary tract infection in young children are mostly fever, yellow urine, frequent urination, and small urine volume. In some cases, the urethral opening may be red and swollen. The children may also become listless and have a loss of appetite.

Causes

1. Reasons why children are prone to urinary tract infections

(1) Physiological characteristics: Because babies wear diapers, their urethral opening is often contaminated by feces. In addition, the local defense ability is poor, which can easily cause ascending infection, especially in girls with short urethras. Young infants have poor antibacterial capabilities and are susceptible to bacteremia, which can lead to descending infection.

(2) Congenital malformations and urinary tract obstruction. The former is more common than in adults. For example, ureteropelvic junction stenosis, hydronephrosis, posterior urethral valves, and polycystic kidney disease can all lead to poor drainage and secondary infection. In addition, obstruction can also be caused by neurogenic bladder, stones, tumors, etc.

(3) Vesicoureteral reflux (abbreviated as urinary reflux) is common in infancy and childhood. Under normal circumstances, a section of the ureter runs inside the bladder wall. When the bladder is filled with urine and urination occurs, the bladder wall compresses this section of the ureter, closing it and preventing urine from flowing back. In infancy, because the ureters running inside the bladder wall are short, many children do not close completely during urination, resulting in reflux. Bacteria travel upward with the reflux and cause infection. The harm of urinary reflux is that it can cause reflux nephropathy and renal scarring, which often occurs in children under 5 years old. The degree of reflux is directly proportional to the scarring of the kidney. Mild reflux may disappear with age, but severe reflux often requires surgical correction. Therefore, it is important to identify whether children with urinary tract infection have reflux in order to clarify the diagnosis and guide treatment.

2. Pathogenic bacteria

Most of the diseases are caused by enteric bacilli. The most common is Escherichia coli, followed by Proteus, Klebsiella and Escherichia coli. A few are caused by fecal streptococci and Staphylococcus aureus, and occasionally by viruses, mycoplasmas or fungi.

3. Infection route

(1) Ascending infection is more common in girls.

(2) Bloodstream infections often occur in newborns and young infants, and are common in the course of impetigo, pneumonia, and sepsis.

(3) Urinary tract instrument examination can also be a route of infection.

(4) Other minor cases may be caused by direct involvement of the lymphatic pathways and adjacent organs or tissues.

Clinical manifestations

1. Acute urinary tract infection

It refers to patients with a disease course of less than 6 months. Symptoms vary depending on age and where the infection affects the affected area. Older children are similar to adults. The younger the child, the more obvious the systemic symptoms are, and local urination irritation symptoms are often mild or easily ignored.

(1) In the neonatal period, it is mostly caused by bloodstream infection. The symptoms vary in severity, with systemic symptoms being the main ones, such as fever, poor feeding, pallor, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal distension and other non-specific manifestations. Most children may experience growth stagnation and slow weight gain. Some children may have convulsions, lethargy, and sometimes jaundice. However, the symptoms of local urination are generally not obvious.

(2) In infancy and childhood, systemic symptoms are still the main ones, such as fever, mild cough, and recurrent diarrhea. Urinary symptoms such as frequent urination, urgency, and pain become more obvious with age. The baby cries during urination or has persistent diaper rash and occasionally jaundice.