Infant UTI's?

[DrSally]

Anyone have any experience with UTI's in a baby girl (12 months). My neice has has a cold for 2 weeks with a low grade fever. She is prone to ear infections, so my sister kept bringing her in to check if it was an ear infection. They said no, but it was either a virus or teething. The other day it went up to 103.5. The doctors finally figured out it was a UTI, which they said is rare in an infant. They started her on antibiotics and said if they didn't work, she'd have to go to the ER for kidney damage since it had gone on so long. Well, the antibiotics worked the first night. My question is, how do they know if there was kidney damage? Eventhough the antibiotics started working, what if there was already kidney damage? Anyone share their experience with baby UTI's?

[brittone2]

Anyone have any experience with UTI's in a baby girl (12 months). My neice has has a cold for 2 weeks with a low grade fever. She is prone to ear infections, so my sister kept bringing her in to check if it was an ear infection. They said no, but it was either a virus or teething. The other day it went up to 103.5. The doctors finally figured out it was a UTI, which they said is rare in an infant. They started her on antibiotics and said if they didn't work, she'd have to go to the ER for kidney damage since it had gone on so long. Well, the antibiotics worked the first night. My question is, how do they know if there was kidney damage? Eventhough the antibiotics started working, what if there was already kidney damage? Anyone share their experience with baby UTI's?

nak-
my friend's dd has kidney reflux. She has had several UTIs.

[DrSally]

Kidney reflux? Interesting. My sister mentioned my neices reflux to the doctor, and they said the 2 may be related. I'll have to do some searching on kidney reflux...

[TaChapm]

Jaci had VUR. It was reflux of the urine from the bladder back up to the kidney's. She had 8 infections over 17 months and was on an antibiotic every day to try to prevent them. We finally decided that it wasn't working and did a procedure called Deflux to correct the problem. She continued on the antibiotics for another 3 months and has now been infection free since April.

They can do a VCUG to test for the reflux although it is a very invasive test and they usually don't do it on the first infection unless there is a family history. (I had VUR and my cousin had it so we tested Jaci when she was in the hospital at 3 months with one). They can do an ultrasound of the kidney's to see if they are growing normally and that can give them a pretty good idea if there was any damage. Most likely there won't be with the first infection. Jaci had some damage but she had so many BAD infections. We go in every 3 months to monitor her kidney's because one is growing a lot slower than the other.

Hang in there! I hope things get better for her. It is scary but I honestly wouldn't worry about damage with this first one. Jaci had a really bad one at 3 months old that put her in the hospital for 4 days. She didn't start showing signs of damage until around 17 months and 8 infections later. Let me know if you need any more information.

[brittone2]

Just adding that there was a family history in the case of my friend's DD as well.

[elephantmeg]

it's not that rare. We're a small hospital and we see 1-3 a month usually. Girls more than boys. To rule out kidney damage they look at the enzymes (with a CMP), an ultrasound to see if there is swelling and then the conclusive test for multiple or severe kidney infections is the VCUG where they put a catheter in and put dye in (I think) and watch to see if urine goes backwards-from the bladder to the kidneys.

[MaiseyDog]

We are also dealing with VUR and frequent UTI's. DD#2 actually had her first last Thanksgiving at 8 weeks old. We go for her follow up VCUG next week. She's currently taking Furadantin daily.

[DrSally]

Tara, thank you for the info and reassurance. I read more about VUR and they are going in for prob a sonogram in a few weeks. She was responsive to antibiotics, so they don't think it's urgent to do more testing right away. I'm sorry to hear your daughter had such a hard time with it. 3 months is so young.

Meg, thanks for the info. Now that she has this we are hearing more and more people have had similar experiences. I think they are going to do all of the tests you mentioned. Margaret, sorry your little one had to deal with this. I hope the meds are helping prevent it.

[HallsofVA]

My DD was diagnosed with VUR when she was 10 weeks old. She had a fever at 2 months so the ped did a full workup and found a UTI and other things. The UTI was the trigger for the fuller testing which diagnosed the VUR. She's since been on a daily antibiotic ever since she was 2 months old (she turned 2 today) and will remain on the antibiotic until she either potty trains completely or we have her retested. Luckily we caught her's early which has eliminated many of the other infections that are often associated.

Our ped said that a fever in an infant girl with no other apparent indicator is usually a signal of a UTI, so they do the workup whenever the see that.

[DrSally]

Our ped said that a fever in an infant girl with no other apparent indicator is usually a signal of a UTI, so they do the workup whenever the see that.

Interesting. Thanks. My sis will definitely be looking at fevers in her DD in a different way from now on.

[kochh2]

:) That would be me, Beth, right?? Either way, DD was dx'd with bilateral reflux at 3 mos old, after 3-4 days in the hospital :(
she's been on abx since then, gets regular ultrasounds, every 6 mos or so, and once a year she has a VCUG, which, i agree... is very invasive!! but on our last visit to have the VCUG, we got good news that she'd outgrown her reflux on one side!! yippee!! We are due to make a urologist appt, to determine whether to take the deflux route, since it is less likely she will outgrow the other side... i'm so glad we caught it when we did, as she does not have kidney damage related to her UTI's... but yeah, they're more common than your neice's doctor led mama to believe!!happy to answer any questions if she has any, and there's a good message board for VUR (vesico-ureteral-reflux) on ivillage....
HTH!