If you feel like your child is having kidney-related problems, make sure that you can refer him or her to someone who is an expert in health pediatric nephrology.
What is health pediatric nephrology?
Nephrology is a branch of science that deals with the study of diseases and functions of kidney. Health pediatric nephrology is a part of it. Their main patients are children, from the time they were born until they reach late adolescence.
You may be surprised where there is a separate field of nephrology for children. You have to know the kids are very delicate, even if they are no longer babies. They have smaller kidneys, and they don't have enough strength and immunity that adults may have when it comes to kidney infection. Simply put, they require extra care, which can only be given by a doctor who is an expert in health pediatric nephrology.
What are the different kinds of diseases that are under health pediatric nephrology?
There are a lot of diseases that are being handled by the health pediatric nephrology department. For one, you have acute kidney failure. This refers to the fast loss of renal function because the kidneys of your child have already been severely damaged by creatinine, urea, and other waste products that can no longer get out of your body. When a child undergoes renal failure, he or she will experience an increase in potassium level, as well as blood acidification. This is a very dangerous illness, and unless you bring your child to a health pediatric nephrology professional, there's a huge chance that you're going to lose him or her.
The health pediatric nephrology department will also treat hematuria, which is characterized by the presence of red blood cells in the urine of your child. This will be precedence to a problem in the kidneys, which can either be the presence of a tumor or a kidney stone. If there are also white blood cells in the urine, it will tell you that the child may be suffering from a urinary tract infection.
Health pediatric nephrology will also tackle nephritic syndrome, which refers to the kidney disorder where the there is too much protein that is being leaked from the blood and into the urine. You also have to bring your kid to the pediatric nephrologists if he or she is suffering from calcium and bone problems because of renal disease, nephritis, kidney inflammation, electrolyte abnormalities, and congenital abnormalities of the kidneys.
How do you look for a health pediatric nephrology professional?
You may think that just because the doctor works in the health care facility, you are already assured of his or her expertise. Keep in mind that we're talking about the health of your child. You cannot definitely entrust it to someone you don't know nothing about. When you're looking for a health pediatric nephrology professional for your kid, make sure that he or she has spent 4 years in medical school, besides spending 4 years in an undergraduate course, usually biology. He or she must have undergone around 3 years of training under a pediatric residency program of a hospital. Most of all, he or she must be certified by the American Board of Pediatrics. Unless he or she has all these qualifications, you may be dealing with the wrong doctor. In fact, you should report him or her to the health care facility or to the association, so the right penalties will be given to the health practitioner.
What are the first steps in health pediatric nephrology?
Before you can get the treatment that your child requires, you have to go through a series of tests first. The first step will be to look for the right professional. When you've already found the doctor that you feel comfortable with, you can then set up an appointment. Your child will then be under examinations that will determine the problem at hand, as well as the causes. After that, he or she will be able to identify the right kind of treatment that will be provided for your child.
With the help of advancement in science and technology, there are already different kinds of services and treatments that you can expect in health pediatric nephrology. First, you have dialysis. This is a medical procedure that tries to imitate the usual functions of the kidneys, just in case your child has already lost them because of damage or tumor. A machine is utilized to remove the waste products that are already stored in the kidneys, as well as maintain the level of nutrients and minerals found in your kidney and in your blood. Your child could be prone to blood poisoning if he or she doesn't undergo dialysis.
You have to bear in mind, though, that dialysis can be forever, depending on the severity of the kidney failure. If you want to make sure that your kid doesn't undergo with it all his life, or if only one kidney gets affected and the other is healthy, a health pediatric nephrology professional may recommend kidney transplantation. This is very similar to organ transplants. You have to look for a donor, someone who can give up one of his kidneys for the sake of the patient. The rule here is to find a match. If you can find someone in your family who is, you can speed up kidney transplantation. Otherwise, you have to wait for somebody to come along.
Health pediatric nephrology may also cover biopsies of kidneys to determine tumors, X-ray studies and interpretation of results, and laboratory studies.