A protein was found in the child's urine tests. The pediatrician is alarmed, the parents are in shock. Outwardly, there are no changes in the baby's behavior, he looks completely healthy, and here is the result! The well-known pediatrician of the highest category and TV presenter Yevgeny Olegovich Komarovsky tells the parents about the reasons for the appearance of protein in the urine and what to do about it.
What it is?
Proteinuria is an increased amount of protein in the urine.
Normally, there should be no protein in the urine at all. More precisely, it is there, of course, but in such small quantities that not even a single high-precision laboratory equipment can catch its traces. An increase in this amount to the marks that are determined by a laboratory assistant may indicate both serious disturbances in the child's body and some completely harmless and normal physiological states.
Norm
A normal indicator that should not be alarming is 0.003 grams of reactive protein per liter.
If the number in your child's tests is significantly higher, there may be several reasons:
- The disease is in the initial or active stage. For example, a baby begins to fall ill with ARVI and has a slightly elevated temperature.
- Any infection that the child has suffered no earlier than 2 weeks before the test.
- Allergy in the acute stage.
- General hypothermia of the body.
- A child's recent severe stress.
- Substantial physical activity.
- Poisoning.
- Drug intoxication with prolonged use of medications.
- Tuberculosis.
- Diseases of the kidneys and urinary tract.
- Problems with the processes of hematopoiesis.
It is possible to establish the exact reason for the increase in reactive protein in the baby's urine only with the help of additional examinations by a nephrologist, urologist, hematologist, pediatrician, and neuropathologist.
Komarovsky about the squirrel
If a child has found an increased concentration of protein in the urine, do not panic, calls on Yevgeny Komarovsky. The reason for such a laboratory result is not always pathological. For example, in newborns and children in the first weeks of life, increased protein is generally a variant of the norm, and in infants, the reason for the increase in such indicators in urine can be the most common overfeeding. I ate too much - there was an additional load on the body - the protein increased.
Quite often, protein is found in the urine by mistake, Komarovsky emphasizes. This can happen if the analysis was collected incorrectly. Urine should only be brought in a clean, special plastic jar with a tight lid. Before collection, you need to wash the child with soap, and if we are talking about a girl, during the emptying of the bladder, close the inhalation into the vagina with a cotton swab to avoid foreign secretions entering the urine.
How to wash girls away - Dr. Komarovsky gives his advice on how to avoid unnecessary health problems in your favorite beauties in the family.
Komarovsky recommends not to be zealous with protein foods, it can also cause overestimated protein levels in urine. Babies need to introduce complementary foods on time and competently, do not limit the baby to breast milk or formula alone. Older children should not be fed meat, milk and eggs three times a day. Most often, after the normalization of the diet, the child's urine tests return to normal.
If experts come to the conclusion that the cause of the increased protein is initially pathological, most often it is about diseases of the kidneys and excretory system, says Komarovsky. Most often, such diagnoses as cystitis, pyelonephritis sound. These conditions will require special treatment, which will be prescribed by a pediatric nephrologist.
If the protein in the urine has increased due to an infection or a disease such as ARVI, with an attack of allergies, parents do not need to do anything special, Komarovsky said. After all, the indicators will return to normal on their own after a while after the baby recovers.
In any case, the doctor recommends not postponing the visit to the doctor. In the meantime, the examination is underway, the child needs to create the most relaxed environment, reduce physical activity, emotional stress. Sometimes a simple correction of nutrition and a calm home family environment is enough for a child's urine analysis to become normal.
While the child is growing, mothers are often faced with the delivery of children's urine to the clinic. Doctor Komarovsky talks about urine analysis and urinary tract infections in his broadcast.
