AT the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Medical Center that serves the greater metropolitan area of New York, there has been a nearly 500% increase in children brought in with kidney stones between 1994 and 2005, according to a 2007 study reported in the Journal of Urology.
New kidney stone centers
As a concession to the seriousness of the situation, some hospitals have opened pediatric kidney stone clinics, like the new Kidney Stone Center at Children's Hospital Boston where Dr Caleb P Nelson, a urology instructor at Harvard Medical School, is attached.
In the 2008 interview, he said: "The older doctors would say in the '70s and '80s, they'd see a kid with a stone once every few months."
"Now we see kids once a week or less," he added.
...and they get younger
Professor David Hatch, MD at the Loyola University Medical Center near Chicago, has also seen an increase. His youngest patient was an agitated 8-month-old girl. Her mother had reportedly found a pea-sized kidney stone in her diaper.
Over at the Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Dr Yuri Alon's research is trying to determine if the increase is real and not just the result of greater awareness and better ways of detecting stones. He is also studying whether improved nutrition can prevent kids' kidney stones.
Kids not drinking enough water
Eating habits, plus drinking too little water, puts them at risk. Plenty of water is generally recommended to help prevent kidney stones. Eleven-year-old Tessa Cesario of Frederick County in Maryland developed a kidney stone in February 2008. She has since cut back on salt and is drinking more water.
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