DD says her "front bum" hurts - how do I treat it?

[ElfOnTheTopShelf]

Generally she is well and fine, but last night she moaned when she came into our bed saying her "front bum" hurt, she often says this but I think its 'cause she ends up poking it.
Anyway, she's with my mum today and mum says when she went to the loo she was complaining. Mum has suggested barley water / cranberry juice, but should I just go straight to the docs? She seems perfectly well within herself aside from this iyswim.

I would go to the docs, an untreated urinary infection can turn nasty in children.

thanks, will ring the docs. If she says it doesn't hurt tonight when she gets home, should I still take her? Do I have to try to get a sample before we go?

Do both - go to the docs and get her on cranberry juice. DD1 has had a couple of urinary infections and it's not nice. The cranberry jiuce may be more palatable to her if mixed 50/50 with apple, BTW.

They will ask you for a sample, so it's worth trying to get one before you go. They won't be able to test it there and then, it'll need to be sent to the labs so they may put her on ABs regardless. Apologies if this is TMI but DD1's wee smells very strongly when she has an infection - have you noticed this at all?

Oh, yes, get a sample before if you can. DD can rarely "perform" in the docs and we have to sit around for ages.

DD had a kidney infection when she was just 12 weeks old as we had overlooked a urinary infection. The doc said that she was lucky that there was no scarring.

No, haven't noticed anything odd with smell.
She's 3 and wears a nappy at night, she came into our bed in the middle of the night having taken it off, so I put another on, but she wasn't happy. She had done a wee in the early morning in her nappy before I got her dressed, so didn't use the loo, so I didn't see her go, first time she went was at my mums this morning.
Though she didn't like me using a baby wipe on her this morning.
She quite likes cranberry juice so will give her some later, and ring the docs.

Yes take a sample if you can. They will do some preliminary tests there and then - and if opsitive will start ABs. They will send it to the lab for confirmation.

Also try and keep her general fluid intake up. DD was sore the other day and I think it was because she doesn't drink enough meaning her urine was very concentrated. I put some sudocrem on her before bed and also concentrated on getting her to drink (was like you about whether to go to doctors or not) and she was fine.

Gosh, just reading up on uti's, didn't realise how serious they could be

They are often underestimated, I think.

Don't know about UK, but in Germany and Switzerland if a child has more that one infection then you automatically get a referral to a specialist to check the kidneys are working properly.

My dd used to get this all the time when she was little, and it wasn't a UTI, just soreness and an ache in her bits.

We used to put Sudocrem or Metanium on ,and sometimes a cool flannel helped.

she's home now, and just off for a wee...

MrsMaidamess - there is a condition called interstitial cystitis which produces similar symptoms to a UTI (i.e. pain & frequent weeing) without there being an infection.

All 3 of my DDs have (or had - DTDs have grown out of it). In their case it is triggered by eating/drinking fresh citrus. Also being a bit under the weather with a cough/cold can also cause it. It produces exactly the same pain as cystitis and elimiation of citrus was the easy cure. This tends to be very short lived (e.g. symptoms will last 4-6hrs after citrus) - then all better

In the OPs case - she seems to have been affected by more that 4-6hrs so it shoudl definately be checked to rule out infection. As you have seen from your googling untreated UTIs can be quite nasty.

This time of year young children do tend to forget to drink lots of fluids like they normally do in the summer when they are running around and hot. So you have to remind them all the time to drink.

That metanium cream is really good, you only need a small amount on sore skin (can't be broken).

I have metanium, I swear by it! She went to the loo no problem, wee didn't smell / look too iffy. Just washed her bum, put on some metanium and a nappy for bedtime. Will still ring the docs though, just in case.

can some juice make it worse btw? recently changed the type of juice she is drinking, just wondering if that has had an affect?

I can't remember the details but I think I saw KatyMac saying hte other day that dark juices weren't great for a UTI sufferer...but then that doesn't fit with cranberry juice which is recommended.

Not sure about other juices. Certainly lots of clear fluids help by diluting hte urine and nasties that are in it.

have made her drink water tonight rather than juice. We just switched to tesco double concentrate cherry and berry type juice, she usually has orange.

Put cotton wool in her overnight nappy, and wring the wee ut of it in the morning for a sample.

We did this for dd...........unfortunately she poohed for the first time ever in her overnight nappy when she had just got up

If she is potty trained no need for cotton wool.

The research suggests that cranberry juice can prevent UTIs in older women, but that it is largely ineffective in treating an existing UTI.

How are things to day Elf?