Attentive parents always notice changes in the baby's condition, so the unusual color of urine can disturb and frighten them. Is darkened urine a symptom of a disease, why can it change its color and what should be done if it suddenly becomes darker than usual?
What color should be normal?
The normal color for a child's urine is yellow in various shades. It can be a light yellow shade or a darker one - it all depends on the concentration of substances dissolved in it (in particular, salts and pigments). In infants who receive only breast milk or formula, the urine is often very light. In an older child, it acquires a more intense yellow tint. In addition, in the morning after sleep, it is darker, as it is more concentrated.
Possible reasons
Among the non-hazardous factors that affect the color of urine, food, water regime and medication are distinguished. However, darkening of this biological fluid can also be observed in case of serious diseases.
Yellow-orange
Most often, this color of urine results in:
- Eating large amounts of carrots and other foods that contain orange and yellow pigments.
- Taking multivitamin preparations.
- Taking medications of the phenothiazine group, as well as rifampicin.
- Dehydration.
Dark brown
The acquisition of brown urine is possible with:
- Dehydration. It can be both with insufficient drinking and with dangerous conditions, for example, high temperature, vomiting, heart disease and other pathologies.
- Eating dishes made from legumes, aloe, and rhubarb.
- Taking laxatives and antimalarial drugs, as well as some other medications.
- Diseases of the gallbladder and liver.
- Glomerulonephritis.
- Poisoning with chemical compounds.
Read more in the article on brown urine in children.
Red
This color may appear as a consequence:
- Eating foods with red pigments, such as beets, rhubarb and red berries. At the same time, the transparency of urine will remain, the child will no longer have any alarming symptoms, and within a day after stopping the use of such food, the color will return to normal.
- Taking metronidazole, ibuprofen, rifampicin, laxatives and some other drugs.
- Blood contamination. In this case, the shade becomes dirty red, and turbidity appears in the urine (blood clots can also be detected). In addition, the child often complains of pain and other symptoms.
- Destruction of red blood cells. With this pathology, a large amount of hemoglobin gets into.
- Muscle breakdown. It leads to the fact that urine is excreted with a large amount of myoglobin.
- Pyelo- or glomerulonephritis. In this case, additional symptoms of kidney inflammation and turbidity of urine are noted.
What to do in case of red urine in a child, read another article.
Greenish / Blue tint
Urine can acquire this shade after eating asparagus dishes, as well as taking indomethacin, vitamin B complexes, methylene blue and some other medicines. Also, such a color may suggest that the child is poorly absorbed by tryptophan or there is a hereditary disease in which the level of calcium in the blood rises.
Additional warning symptoms
Parents should be alerted by such signs of health problems of the baby:
- Pain in the back, abdomen, muscles, and also when urinating.
- Fever, lethargy, refusal to eat, weakness.
- Very cloudy urine and a strong odor.
- Very frequent or too rare urination.
- Yellowness of the skin and sclera, as well as itching of the skin and discoloration of stool.
If a child develops these symptoms, they should be seen by a specialist without delay.
What to do?
The fact of darkening of children's urine should not be ignored, because this can be a sign of both harmless conditions and rather dangerous pathologies. The doctor will help to identify the cause of the dark color, who will send the baby for additional research. Among them there will be a biochemical blood test, an ultrasound study, a serological test for antibodies to hepatitis and other appointments.
Treatment
After determining the cause of the darkened urine, your doctor will recommend treatment based on the identified health problems. If it becomes darker due to dehydration, efforts should be made to normalize the water balance in the body.
If hepatitis is detected, the baby is prescribed a special diet, enzymes, hepatoprotectors and other drugs. If the cause of the dark color is kidney disease, antibiotics, diuretics, and other medications are prescribed depending on the disease.
