New York - Kidney stones, once considered a disorder of middle age , are now showing up in American children as young as five. While there are no reliable data on the number of cases, pediatric urologists and nephrologists across the United States say they are seeing a steep frise in young patients. Some hospitals have opened pediatric kidney stone clinics.
"The older doctors would say in the 70s and 80s, they'd see a kid with a stone once every few months, " said Dr Caleb P Nelson, a urology instructor at Harvard Medical School who is co-director of the new kidney stone centre at Children's Hospital Boston. "Now we see kids once a week or less ".
In china recently, mnay children who drank milk tained with melamine - a toxic chemical illegally added to watered - down mik to inflate the protein count developed kidney stones.The two biggest risk factors to developing kidney stones is not drinking enough fluids and eating too much salt. Experts mention not just salty chips and fries, but sand wich meats, canned soups, even sports drinks like Gatorade.
Children also tend not to drink enough water. "Drinking more water is the most important step in the prevention of kidney stones," said Dr Alicia Neu.The median age of children with stones is about 10. Many experts say the rise in obesity is contributing to kidney stones in children.
There is also evidence that sucrose, found in sodas, can also increase risk of stones, as can high protein weight-loss diets, which are growing in popularity among teenagers... THE NEW YORK TIMES /* test here */
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