Kidney Disease Symptoms In Children

What are symptoms when children suffer from kidney disease? The main cause of kidney disease in children is caused by their immune system disorder. At this time, if without effective treatment, it will cause complications. Therefore, once children are experiencing kidney disease, they should take treatment as soon as possible. Here let’s see what symptoms will children suffer from.

1. Massive proteinuria

Massive proteinuria is the most common symptom in kidney disease. Due to the change of glomerular permeability, large amounts of plasma protein will leak into urine from blood, forming proteinuria. Since there is large amounts of protein in urine, the urine is usually foamy.

2. Severe swelling

Swelling is the most obvious symptom in nephrotic syndrome. The swelling is often to be seen in face, legs and then the whole body.

3. Hypoalbuminemia

Since patients have massive proteinuria, it causes the loss of protein in plasma. Thus, total plasma protein reduces and albumin reduces obviously.

4. External manifestation

Due to loss of lots of protein, children may suffer from protein-malnutrition like dry and yellow hair, dry skin and hair follicle cornification. Besides, children may also suffer from malnourished anemia. Patients at this condition usually have poor immunity, stunted growth and somnolence.

Dietary management for children with kidney disease

For children with kidney disease, nutrition is vital because their diet can affect how well their kidneys work. Their parents should always consult with their child’s health care team before making any dietary changes. Children should pay attention to the following elements of a diet:

1. Protein

Children with kidney disease should eat enough protein for growth while limiting high protein intake. Too much protein intake can burden their kidneys and cause kidney function to decline faster. Foods with protein are eggs, milk, chicken, cheese, fish, red meats, beans, yogurt and cottage cheese.

2. Sodium

Sodium intake should depend on the stage of their kidney disease. Generally kidney disease patients should limit or avoid high sodium foods like canned foods, some frozen foods, most processed foods and some snack foods.

3. Potassium and phosphorus

Children may need to stay away from some food with high potassium and high phosphorus level. Low potassium food include apples, cranberries, blueberries, pineapple, cabbage, boiled cauliflower and raspberries. Low phosphorus foods include green beans, popcorn, root beer, rice and corn cereals and egg white.