Can Children Nephrotic Syndrome Have Watermelon

Watermelon contains rich water and nutritions such as protein, glucose, vitamins, etc. It has benefits for patients of hypertension, nephritis, cirrhosis, heart disease, etc. However, since watermelon contains 94% water and nephrotic syndrome patients often suffer from fluid retention, many parents consult us whether their diseased children can have watermelon or not. Renal dietitian’s answer is that children nephrotic syndrome patients can have watermelon, but they should limit the amount.

Watermelon has many benefits to both healthy people and kidney disease patients. By eating watermelon, children can get a lot of nutritions. What is more, poor appetite, indigestion, swelling can be relieved.

Since watermelon is very delicious, many children are easy to have too much. This should be avoided for children that have nephrotic syndrome. Their kidneys can not regulate water balance in the body and there is often fluid retention in their body. Eating too much watermelon can worsen fluid retention and increase burdens to the kidneys and heart. In serious conditions, there will be sharp increase of blood volume which can cause acute heart failure or threaten the patient’s life. Besides, too much intake of watermelon can dilute the gastric juice and cause indigestion or diarrhea.

If the diseased child has diabetes or high blood sugar level, watermelon should be limited. Sugars in watermelon are easy to be absorbed by the body and further increase sugar concentration in the blood. Long term high blood glucose level is one leading cause of renal damages and renal failure. It can worsen illness conditions of nephrotic syndrome and speed up its progression into renal failure.

Nephrotic syndrome patients need to know what they can eat and what they should limit or totally avoid. Proper diets can help ease symptoms, slow down illness progression and protect residual kidney functions. For children nephrotic syndrome patients, they may not realize the importance of some diet restrictions, therefore parents should pay more attention to their daily eating and life habits besides regular medicines and treatments.