Kidney Stones And Children

In the many sleepless hours I spent in the hospital, I spent a lot of time doing research for this blog. One of the sites I spent perusing was the New York Times online. I know it's a credible source and a tremendous wealth of information.

I came across this article and want to share it with you. According to this article by Laurie Tarkan from October 28, 2008, there is a tremendous rise in kidney stones in children as young as five and six years old! You can read the entire article by clicking here.

She gives some incredible numbers and reasons for this dramatic rise in a disorder once considered a problem for middle-aged adults.

One of the most disturbing reasons she sites for this problem is what is causing these kidney stones. She writes, it's food and drinks with high salt content. Drinks like Gatorade, and salty foods like sandwich meats, chips, canned soups, packaged meals and french fries.

One of the major reasons is the fact children are not drinking enough water. These two paragraphs came directly from the article:

Children also tend not to drink enough water. “They don’t want to go to the bathroom at school; they don’t have time, so they drink less,” said Dr. Alicia Neu, medical director of pediatric nephrology and the pediatric stone clinic at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore. “Instead, they are likely to drink only once they’re thirsty — but that may be too little, too late, especially for children who play sports or are just active.”

“Drinking more water is the most important step in the prevention of kidney stones,” Dr. Neu said.

I seem to have written a few posts on food lately. I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe I'll go have a sandwich and a Gatorade and think about it. (He said sarcastically.)

Your comments are always welcome.

Later,

Mike