Recurrent UTIs under 5

[anunseemlylovefordustin]

My 4yo had her fourth UTI last week (she had 2 when she was 2yo, then another one last year). This one was terrifying, she spiked a temperature of 40.1 and I had an ambulance out to her. Trimethoprim has sorted it (although still waiting for the results of the urine test which they sent off to the lab on Wednesday).

So far she has had an ultrasound (a couple of months ago) which they said looked completely normal. Obviously I'll be asking for further investigations, but can anyone give me any idea of what I should be asking for. A referral to a urologist? What sort of tests can be done now to try and pin down further why she keeps getting them?

She's always worn cotton knickers, loose cotton pj's at night, I only use a non bio unperfumed washing powder, she doesn't drink juice and she drinks a lot of water. She doesn't have bubbles in her bath water, her vulva doesn't get washed with soap or anything. She has a probiotic every day.

Now I'm going to try cutting out sugar as much as I can, to see if that helps. Can anyone give me any other tips to try and help avoid any further infections? Or has anyone had any experiences of LO's with recurrent UTIs?

Last week was terrifying (within an hour she went from running around playing to being semi conscious, freezing cold hands and feet, vomiting, with a temperature of 40.1 that (initially, at least) wasn't coming down with either calpol or nurofen).

I want to be sure that I'm doing everything I can to make sure she doesn't have this happen again, it took ten years off me! Would really be grateful for any suggestions or things I haven't thought of?

A hopeful bump

Yes, my own daughter suffered terribly with them from age 2 to 7. She had all the tests you've described above and Doctors put it down to severe constipation. Her poo was basically squeezing through to her bladder and infecting her urinary tract. Her consultant said she would grow out of it when her body 'righted' itself. She felt there was a link moving from breast to cows' milk at age 2. At age 9, she does appear to have stopped having them.

Oh I'm so pleased your daughter has recovered. Mine doesn't seem to be constipated, she goes a couple of times a day. Do you mind me asking whether there was anything you did that helped (while she was suffering from them, I mean)? Or did you just get to be able to recognise the signs and get her to the doctors?

I had a really nasty UTI recently and a nurse I know recommended lemon barley water to prevent a recurrence. It's alkalising. You can make your own if you want to avoid sugar completely but it might be tricky to persuade a 4 year old to drink that.

When my dd got them it was because of poor wiping when going to the toilet. Really train her to wipe front to back.

She is pretty poor at wiping, I do it mostly because she's not very interested. I wonder how I can get her interested in doing it properly? I'll try lemon barley water, thank you!

My daughter had urine infections consistently from age 4 to age 6.
The ultrasound showed everything to be normal.
We think she was a bit constipated, and also held her urine in .
This combination created infections and there was always a very strong fishy smell.
Eventually after a while things settled down with better toilet habits and maybe her body “righted” it self growing up.
I remember being at my wits end.
They do say 90 percent will eventually grow out of it.