Urinary tract infections?

[mamadelbosque]

Hi there, we just got released from the hospital a couple of hours ago, after having been admitted late thursday/early friday morning. My DS2 had been super fussy and just obviously not feeling well for the past couple days. I actually thought it was thrush, but when we saw the ped on thursday she said it wasn't, but told me that if he had a fever at any point over 100 we should take him to the ER... that night his fever was 101+ So, we took him in and they drew blood, got urine & fecal samples, did a spinal tap and put an IV in him to keep him hydrated & give him broad spectrum antiboitics...

Turned out it was a urinary tract infectino caused by e. coli (the usual suspect), but they kept us there for 3.5 days to make sure there wasn't anything else, and they did a ultrasound of his kidneys this morning (which came back normal! Yay!!). The doctor we saw sat/sun/today (not our normal ped), said something about him not being circumsized having caused it and how we should get that done - I gave her a dirty look and she dropped it. Anywho... does anyone know how comon UTI's are in newborns? Alll the doctors seemed to think that was pretty rare/wierd for a newborn to have one, but it seems to me like it'd be a fairly common problem - I mean, lets be honest, babies have diapers which inevitably hold poop close to there penis' and vaginas, so it seems like it wouldn't be THAT uncommon an occurance. But what do I know??

Anyhow, I've already posted in the circ forum, but was wondering what you ladies thought.

[slimkins]

mama, I'm not sure but I just wanted to send you a hug. I hope they have more info for you on the other forum.

[wombatclay]

Big hugs... what a scary experience!

So a quick google search brings up some "basic" info... UTI in newborns/young infants aren't that uncommon (dr spock has 1 in 1000 during the first month, 1 in 100 for premature infants in the first month). They are more common in boys (in the newborn period, after thte first year UTIs are more common in girls), and more common in intact boys than in those who have been circed.

I found an article from Reviews in Urology that discusses intact vs circ in terms of infant UTI here if you're curious.

And since itty bitty kiddos don't handle infection really well a UTI is generally treated as a "big deal"... but the hospital staff shouldn't have made you feel like this was really rare or anything. I'm sorry the hospital staff added to your stress but so glad you're all ok!

[Jilian]

Hugs to you and your little one. IME hospital staff aren't really familiar with intact penises and give moms a hard time about them for no reason. When my DS2 was in congestive heart failure the NICU nurse was making a big deal out of his penis and kept saying "What are you going to do about it?" because she wanted to place a catheter and I wouldn't let her retract his penis. Just ignore them. I'm guessing it was just a random occurance, like you said they poop all over the place and sometimes it gets into their urinary tracts. I hope he's feeling better soon!