Does anyone know what it means if a child. (or adult) has small kidneys

[Mortigua]

Just that- dd age 11 had ultra sound today and her kidneys are small for her age but all looks ok otherwise. She's had scans before (bladder issues ) and nothing picked up till now.

Bump for those who weren't awake at 3am 😄

Don't bash them.
I knew someone who had one small kidney; he was born with many others but they were all misformed/nonfunctional. He manages as long as he keeps his fluid intake up, and needs to avoid contact sport.

Thanks. Dd has to avoid contact sport due to other issues but that's good to know. Thing is her kidneys have looked ok till now but seem small for her age as if she's grown but not her kidneys maybe?

Probably means kidney not working as well as it should as size can be an indicator of function. Google dyplastic kidneys to get some info. You can manage with one kidney/2 small ones, one small one if irs

Sorry - if it’s workimg well though. The key thing to worry about is kidney FUNCTION which they can tell you about via blood and urine tests

So yes - looks like she’s grown but her kidneys haven’t
Ask what they’ll do to investigate regarding how they function and what the plan will be going forward

Also keep an eye on her blood pressure - it’s not routinely taken in children but often if you have bad kidneys you have high blood pressure

Thank you! After all that we've been told it's a false alarm as the specialist who looked at the scan said actually the size is fine!
She has kidney function checked regularly and blood pressure ( which is high). I do wish sometimes they didn't tell me every random issue before its certain but I see why they do. Just a shame when it results in more stress.

That’s good! But phew how stressful for you. Do they know what’s causing the high bp then? I would def think kidneys cause if she’s had urinary issues too? Do you measure it at home? On meds’ for it? X

She's got a condition that means she's on meds for life and it does affect kidneys so she's well monitored for it at hospital( and we do bloods at home ) but it wouldn't make kidneys small which was my worry.
High BP is a side effect of the medication but doesn't affect everyone so is a worry long term. Whenever they take it they keep taking it till they get a lower result ( which inevitably is still high though) and often say well maybe it's stress of being there which could play a part. She's a worry!

You can buy a manual Doppler to take bp at home - its expensive though - id only bother if you know you will need to keep an eye on it long term. When you go into the hospital to get it done as if they can take manually as well - it’s how chikdrens bp should be checked - the automatic machines useless for getting a good reading sometimes.

And I would look into getting a second opinion actually - not good to have high bp long term - maybe there’s a different med she can take that won’t have side effects?

Thanks Rainbow. Unfortunately not as we have had a second opinion from this country's top Dr for the condition. But it's being kept an eye on at least. At one point we were meant to be doing weekly monitoring at school but It was decided it wasn't necessary in the end, may come to that or home monitoring yet. I know when my dad does his he has much lower readings at home. He does it twice a day in think.