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Home › Articles › Nutrition and Health › The ABCs of UTIs

The ABCs of UTIs

Identifying and Treating Urinary Tract Infections

By Michele St. Martin

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Wearing disposable absorbent underpants while working on the problem can be helpful. Children save face if they have an accident, avoiding the telltale wet bottom or odor. This may even improve a child's self-esteem, and save you from frequent laundering.

Does your child's bedwetting mean that she may have a urinary tract infection? Not likely, according to Dr. Langman, who says that fewer than one percent of children who wet the bed have a urinary tract infection. "When [bedwetting and UTIs] are related, it generally is from infection in the bladder or kidney, from a structural problem with the kidney or more rarely, from chronic kidney disease or diabetes mellitus," says Dr. Langman.

Dr. Dean agrees and says that while daytime wetting or bedwetting can signal a urinary tract infection, "the vast majority of nocturnal enuresis (bedwetting) is unrelated to infection. Nonetheless, children being evaluated for nocturnal enuresis routinely undergo urinalysis to rule out signs of infection," he says.

Diagnosis and Treatment
Diagnosis of a UTI is easy and non-invasive, Dr. Langman says. "Testing of the urine with a modern urine 'dipstick' will detect the presence of blood, protein (several different dipsticks detect subtle levels, an early indicator of kidney function problems), white blood cells that may be related to an infection, the concentration or diluteness of the urine and a substance called 'nitrites' that indicates the possibility of an infection."

Dr. Dean suggests that children with a confirmed UTI undergo testing to determine its cause. "I think its important that parents know that pediatric urologists recommend that all children with documented urinary tract infections undergo a thorough evaluation including a renal-bladder ultrasound as well as a voiding-cystourethrogram (VCUG)," he says. "This is because a significant number of children with infections have structural issues including vesicourteral reflux, which can be detected by these tests."

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