Preventing Kidney Stones
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Health Tip of the Week Once considered an adult disease, kidney stones have become more common among children and adolescents over the past few decades. The reasons for this increase are not entirely clear, but a number of factors may play a role, including diet, family history, and not drinking enough fluids.
Despite the growing number of cases, kidney stones are still relatively uncommon in children. When they do occur, though, they can be painful and upsetting for kids and their families.
Kidney stones occur when minerals become concentrated in the urine and form solid crystals. If these crystals get stuck in the ureter, the tube that drains the urine into the bladder, they can obstruct the drainage of urine, causing pain and discomfort. Some stones are passed on their own. Those that don’t can be removed surgically or through less invasive procedures.
“At the Pediatric Kidney Stone Center, where we specialize in treating kids with kidney stones, prevention is extremely important,” says Gregory Tasian, MD, MSc, MSCE, an attending pediatric urologist at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a world-renowned pediatric kidney stone expert.
While the Center team creates individualized prevention plans for each child depending on the exact cause of the stones, a key component of these plans is making dietary changes. What your child eats and drinks affects his urine chemistry, which can influence his kidney stone risk.
The following recommendations may help prevent kidney stones in children:
Contributed by: Gregory E. Tasian, MD, MSc, MSCE