Dd - 3rd urine infection this year.. Any suggestions for relief.

[chocolatespiders]

Poor 17 year old dd has another urine infection.. She has antibiotics and is now sleeping.
Was just looking up cranberry juice/tablets and it says not to have it while taking antibiotic's- is that right?
Is there anything else we can do..

Right not to take the cranberry during a UTI or when on antibiotics.

Make sure she is tested again for UTI after she has finished the antibiotics as the infection can still be present if symptomless. I am not a medic but was told this when I had a persistent UTI last year.

Drink plenty of water & remind her to wipe front to back after having a wee & use cotton knickers , and no shower gels, bacterial washes etc when bathing. (All of which I am sure you know).

Has she been tested for diabetes? Recurrent infections can be a sign.

Is she sexually active? If she is, a gentle reminder to pee after sex might help to keep them at bay. My teen daughter (she's 19) had a run of them and this really helped her! (As did changing to latex free condoms.)

I was plagued for years and I now take a high strength cranberry tablet last thing at night. My doctors are over the moon as am I to be infection free now since 2009. She needs to be completely infection free before she starts. I also put tea tree in every bath I have and I think this has helped too

If she is getting them on and off all the time I'd ask for a referral to a urologist and get them to prescribe long term antibiotics. I went on them when I was 15 ish and I take one a night and self medicate to a higher dose if I feel I am going to have an infection and it's kept me more or less cystitis free for 20 years now (I'm 35 this year). I take cefalexin which the gp prescribes for me regularly. I took it throughout both my pregnancies with no problems either..its literally changed my life.

Thankyou all...
Thanks for the tips magimedi I will remind her..she is sexually active so will mention about washing.
I think once this infection is over I will tell her to make a gp appt to have a proper investigation. She has never been tested for diabetes so it may be worth doing.
She drinks so much water but I do know she doesn't use the loo's at school which obviously doesn't help.

She needs to use the loos at school - holding it in really, really won't help this problem.

Talk to her about how to hover & pee! Or get her a she wee:

www.shewee.com/about-us/#howuse

Not washing, weeing. I don't think you should use anything but water on your bits. A good pee after sex can flush things through and keep the bad bacteria from taking hold.

Drinking lots/thirst can also be a sign of diabetes- I'd push to get her tested. Is she tired all of the time? (Hard to tell with a teen, I know!)

The area I am in are very hot on prophylactic antibiotics for UTIs. It's probably wise to talk to gp as repeated infections can damage kidneys which can predispose you to high bp later in life. It's possible she has bladder reflux or a short tube etc making it easy for bacteria to enter. My son was found to have bladder reflux at 3 months, they usually grow out of it, but I think my mum had to have a small op to help something with it all to lessen utis (not really an expert just know it's important to address).

Thanks Clarella - will get an appt for her and write some notes for her to take in. Now she is over 16 the surgery prefer her to go in alone!
She is very light headed with it and last infection she actually passed out.

I swear by lemon barley squash. It really helps with the burning pain. It doesn't cure but it offers a lot of relief.

Drinking it- not using it to was with. Wouldn't want you to get the wrong end of the stick!

I will get some scoop - do you regularly drink it or just during an attack?

Hovering is really really bad for your pelvic floor. Wiping the seat with antibacterial gel or wipe is better.

After a lot of UTIs as a child I ended up taking a low dose antibiotic (cephradin from memory) for three years from the age of 18 to 21 and then again from 23 to about 25. Started as repeated UTIs and turned into chronic pyelonephritis. I was allergic to trimethoprim which was the first drug of choice back then.

I wasn't sexually active either apart from the last year but even now always get up for a pee afterwards.

Poor thing, I bet she feels rotten. Do get it investigated OP - not worth the risk, I spent three weeks in hospital with one infection and was really ill. I fainted four days into my first job post uni and was whisked off to hospital for two weeks.

I never found anything other than drinking tons of water helped me tbh so wouldn't worry too much about cranberry juice for now.

Same here Clarella DD had three UTIs as a baby so she had all the investigations and scans and was found to have bladder reflux. She was on a prophylactic dose of Cefalexin until she was about 4. She is 14 now and has been fine since.

I only ever drink it when I have an infection. It definitely makes it sting less (I think the barley helps neutralise the acid).

They take it so seriously here that my next child will have to be on trimethoprim from birth apparently. I'm not sure how I feel about it to be honest but its hereditary. My husband's family have split kidneys, no idea if it's a link or not, but they really do take it extremely seriously. The instant it was picked up my son was on the prophylactic antibiotics until they scanned him - if he was clear they'd have taken him off it then (waiting list was 4 months).

If you go to the children's a and e here, they tend to test as a matter of course too.

I hope she gets sorted out soon, if gp seems to be reluctant prehaps look at nice guidelines.

Wow that is very precautionary Clarella.

DD is feeling much better again (thankfully as she is middle of AS exams)
I have made a gp appt for a few weeks time and see what he says.

Thankyou everyone for sharing your thoughts and ideas I really appreciate it.