In a newborn baby, urine does not have any odor, but with age it becomes more like an adult's urine and becomes odorless. Parents should know which one is normal and when to be alert.
What should be the norm?
The smell of a child's urine is normally quite specific, but not harsh. That is why the appearance of a very pronounced or unpleasant odor always causes the thought of a disease in a baby. Such changes cannot be ignored, although it happens that the child is completely healthy.
Smells like ammonia
The appearance of such a smell indicates a violation of the baby's health. First of all, it is necessary to exclude the presence of diabetes mellitus and acetonemia. With diabetes, urine can acquire not only an ammonia smell, but resemble apple cider vinegar or ammonia. In this case, the child will also have other signs of the disease, for example, increased thirst, weight loss, dry skin, urinary frequency disorders, and others. It can also appear with a urinary tract infection.
The smell of acetone
The appearance of the smell of acetone indicates an increased release of ketone bodies in the child's urine, which happens with a large amount of ketones in the blood. An increase in the level of acetone in the blood is due to various factors, including emotional or physical stress. If your child has already had cases of the appearance of acetone, you should make sure that the baby does not have prolonged hunger or overwork. When the child is tired, give him sweet foods to prevent ketones from forming.
Smells like stale fish
The appearance of an unpleasant odor, reminiscent of rotten fish, is characteristic of trimethylaminuria. This is a genetic disease in which trimethylamine accumulates in the body, which causes the appearance of a fishy smell from urine, sweat, exhaled air and human skin.
With other genetic pathologies, the smell of urine also becomes unpleasant and begins to resemble mold or mice (indicating phenylketonuria), burnt sugar (sometimes with leucinosis), cabbage (noted with tyrosinemia).
Possible reasons
The following factors lead to a change in the smell of the child's urine:
- Change in water balance. The child may drink too little or lose it, for example, when vomiting or in hot weather with sweat. Difficulty in nasal breathing may also be the cause.
- Diet changes. The urine of a starving child has an unpleasant smell, as well as of a baby whose menu contains too much fast food, sweet foods, fatty protein dishes, seafood, and spicy foods. It can also change if the child ate horseradish, garlic, asparagus or cabbage. In a nursing baby, a new complementary food product or a new formula, as well as a change in the diet of a nursing mother, can affect.
- Metabolic disorders, caused by genetic pathologies.
- Taking antibiotics and other medicines.
- Poor diaper or stale linen. In this case, the smell will be unpleasant in the morning.
- Rickets. It causes a change in the smell of urine in a baby under one year old, and also manifests itself in sweating of the palms, poor appetite, disturbed sleep and other symptoms of a lack of vitamin D.
- Hormonal changes with hormonal adolescent changes. This is a temporary phenomenon, but it is important for parents to teach their teenager about body care and hygiene.
- Infectious diseases of the excretory system. An unpleasant odor appears with cystitis, as well as with urethritis, pyelonephritis and other inflammations.
- Diabetes. With such a disease, urine is excreted in large quantities, while it gives off ammonia.
- Liver disease. Not only does it become unpleasant smelling, but it also becomes dark in color.
What to do?
A one-time change in smell does not require any action, especially if the parents notice the effect of nutrition. If a pungent smell of urine appears within a few days, you should consult a pediatrician and take the child's blood and urine for analysis. When the smell of ammonia appears, it is imperative to determine the sugar in the baby's blood.
If you suspect the presence of acetone in your urine, you can make sure of this at home using special test strips. In case of a positive reaction to acetone, the first step is to give the child glucose. You can give your baby glucose to drink from an ampoule or chew glucose tablets, and make a decoction of raisins or warm tea with honey for the baby.
If you associate the situation with dehydration, it is important to give your child more to drink. This is especially important in the presence of diarrhea or vomiting, as well as in diseases with a high body temperature. In these cases, it is extremely important to avoid large waste of fluid, and everything will return to normal by itself.
