Has anyone had recurrent urine infections and found the cause?

[wibley2]

I am trying to find out what could be possible causes of recurrent urine infections. My little boy (21 months) has had constant urine infections since July, every time he finishes the antibiotics and is retested ,he has another, different infection. I know food allergies can lead to a weakened immune system which can lead to urine infections and hopefully the consultant will be checking that out next time we see her in a couple of weeks. But, I found out that a friend of a friend gets them every time she eats something with citric acid in it.

I have searched the internet but not really found anything, so I need mumsnetters help please.

We have done food diaries but that hasn't shown up anything obvious, I didn't even think of looking for a particular ingredient until my friend told me this. Now I would like know if citric acid is a known cause or if there are other things I need to look for too.

Any advice would be helpful, thanks

My sister had this as a child and IVU showed it was a duplex kidney. A year of antibiotics cleared the Nidus of inspection that was in the kidney.

Yes, mine was caused by: filter coffee, tea, fresh fruit juices and all alcohol. I'm assuming that your little boy isn't drinking these things apart from the juice perhaps.

I can't take anything with citric acid in either. I can't even eat a satsuma without it causing problems.

I hope you manage to get it sorted out.

Thanks for all your messages. It is always an E.coli infection but each time it is a different strain as the antibiotics that it is resistant to changes each time.

Lunaticfringe - how did you find out that your infection needed 8 weeks of treatment to clear it properly, or is it just one of the things the doctor tried?

Lonecatwithkitten - my ds had his first infection at 6 months, as a result of that he had an ultrasound of his kidneys and a micturating cystourethrogram, it showed everything was normal, so although I'm not sure what a duplex kidney is, I'm guessing if he had one, it would have been spotted then. Do you know different? What is an IVU btw?

Hiddenhome - you are correct in thinking that fruit juice is the only item on your list that my son has. I have been giving him more recently as I read, I think on an nhs site, that citrus fruit juice is thought to have a similar effect to cranberry juice as it changes the pH of your wee and so makes it less inviting to the bacteria. I'm now thinking from what I have heard from real people, that this is completely wrong.

I might try cutting out citric acid just to see. Do you just avoid the obvious things or everything with it as an ingredient as it seems to be used as a preservative in loads of foods.

We are seeing the consultant next week. Anyone got any advice as to questions i need to ask or tests i should be requesting?

IVU - intravenous urethragram. Dye is injected into a vein and shows up on X-ray as passes through kidney into urine. Duplex kidney is having two kidneys where there would normally be one, my sister has bilateral duplex so actually has four kidneys. One them was refluxing urine going the wrong way.

No I'm okay with it in foods apart from citrus fruits. It's mainly drinks that set it off.

that was me as a child - I had reflux due to a congential abnormality of the tubes coming down from kidney to bladder. Long term antibiotics and haven't had many problems since about 16.

I would wait to see consultant.

Thanks for all messages. It is useful to know what you have all found out, especially about the citrus fruit. Just finished current lot of antibiotics, fingers crossed that the next sample will be clear. Consultant next Tuesday.