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Kidney stones in kids are on the rise and no one knows why.

Kidney stones are collections of chemicals or "garbage" (the Yiddish word "schmutz" is perfect in this case) that coalesce in the urinary tract to form hard concretions.

They can vary from microscopic to huge, and the main reason they are a problem is that when the body tries to pass one, the pain of that attempt has been described as excruciating, and many women who've both passed a kidney stone and gone through labour have said that the pain of the kidney stone was actually worse than the pain of delivering a baby.

Kidney stones have been a rare occurrence in kids, but according to anecdotal reports - there have been no studies on this issue yet - from kidney specialists, they are becoming a much more common problem in the US among kids as young as 8, much like Type 2 diabetes, which used to be exceedingly rare in kids is now seen commonly in young children.

No one knows why this kidney stones are occurring so much more often in kids, but the main theory is the same one that underlies that huge increase in Type 2 diabetes in kids: the steep rise in obesity and the corresponding change in both diet and lifestyle - eating way more salt, way more carbs, and way more sugary drinks, and doing much less exercise - among US kids.

Makes sense to me, although some people on internet exchanges have theorized that there are also chemical reasons for this increase, all this because of that scandal around the contamination of the milk supply in China with melamine, since melamine is known to produce kidney stones, and there was, in fact, a corresponding large jump in kidney stones diagnosed among Chinese kids.

Could a similar thing be happening here?

I don't think so, but it certainly makes you wary.

Written by Dr. Art Hister Tuesday, 12 May 2009 00:00

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