21 wk scan showing kidney dilation :(

[Cinnamon1991]

Hi all, I just need someone to talk to because I'm feeling rather down. I had my 21 wk scan a few days ago and the sonographer said there is mild dilation in baby boy's left kidney. To be specific right kidney is fine at 2.5mm and left is 4.1mm. Now he told me that he wants me to come back for another scan at 28 wks to check on it and said not to worry

Cont...anyways I went and googled it and now I'm freaking out as I have read it is a soft marker for downs which runs in the family...we have 2 nephews with downs. I did do the downs screening test and it came back low risk but I'm just freaking out right now.

I'm also scared the dilation won't resolve and get worse. Does anyone have any experience with this? Did it get better as pregnancy progressed? I am a bit of a hypochondriac and now I have read myself into a myriad of worries. I wish the sonographer never told me to be honest because now I can't get it out my head and am constantly finding new things. 😭

So I had the same thing happen with my little girl. All that happened was she was given antibiotics when born to prevent a uti & needed more scans which showed she has a duplex kidney. It’s nothing to worry about and won’t cause any harm other than being more prone to utis- the antibiotics prevent this. I know it’s hard but try not to worry. Kidney problems are very common & most people that are born with them don’t even know until they have a scan later in life. If there was anything to worry about they would have told you x

@NovRainbow5 hi can I just ask how long you had to continue antibiotics for? Also how bad was the dilation in your little girl? Did it get worse as your pregnancy progresses?

This was me 5 years ago and my son is happy and healthy, starting school today.

They didn’t find it until 37 weeks, by 40 weeks it was both kidneys and I had got myself in a state with worry.

They advise that 9 times out of 10 it resolves itself before birth or shortly after. My son went on low dose antibiotics to prevent UTI, had ultrasounds which showed that it hadn’t resolved, got tested for VUR which was negative so they decided just to monitor him. It resolved itself between 2.5 and 3 years but if it hadn’t been for ultrasounds we would have never known as he never had any symptoms of anything.

Obviously I can’t say what will happen for sure but the likelihood is that your baby will be perfectly healthy. Good luck xx

@User79853257976 thank you for sharing your story, I am glad your son is a happy chappy. I actually wasn't that worried till I went home and read my notes...and even then on the notes it was written 'slightly dilated but within normal range' but I then googled...and that was one rabbit hole I couldn't get out of 🙄

Ah well that shouldn’t be anything to worry about! I know it’s hard, I worried through both of my pregnancies.

@Cinnamon1991 May I ask how everything turned out? I'm in the same situation now, left kidney 4.4 mm. The doctor was very reassuring when she went over the finding but she didn't mention anything about Downs syndrome and when I googled and saw about it I started freaking out like crazy. Doc said no other screening tests were necessary since my NIPT was low risk so the only option was amnio, but I felt like the risk of miscarriage was much higher than the risk of baby actually having a chromosomal disorder so I convinced myself against it. I'm now 24 weeks and trying not to think about it but I keep having nightmares almost every night. Did everything work out for you and your baby? Thanks so much for sharing!

My DD didn’t get picked up until 36 weeks but like a previous poster was on antibiotics for first 6 months just in case of an uti. We had scans at local hospital and then got referred to GOSH but all has been ok and the right kidney is now a normal size and left just slightly larger but they aren’t worried and she is nearly 3. We have another GOSH appointment this year but will be discharged if it’s all the same as last year. DD has had no UTIS and zero issues but understand it’s stressful when your not sure how bad it is etc.

Just to reassure you, in almost all cases Down's syndrome does not run in families. In 90% of cases the extra chromosome comes from mum, which is why it's HEAVILY linked to maternal age. Risk of Down's is 1:100 at 40, and reaches 1:30 by 45. Even if some women are more prone to the extra chromosome in advanced maternal age, if they had their kids in their 40s and you're in your 30s, the chances for you are still minimal.