Question about UTI in 5 year old.

[mmmeyer103]

My daugher complained of burning while urinating. I think it was because at camp she was holding her urine all day. 

I took her the next day for a urinalysis. It was neagative with slight dehydration noted. The next day my daughter symptoms vanished, no burning. She never had cloudy or smelly urine. It was always clear urine.

However, the culture grew E. Coli 10,000 count. He said it was sensitive to Bactrim antibiotic which he prescribed.

The doctor asked how her symptoms were since it had been several days to get the culture results because of the weekend. I told him her symptoms were gone. He said it was possible she flushed the bacteria out. Why does she need the antibiotic then?

It has been a week now with no further complaints or symptoms. However, he did prescibe her Bactrim which I have not given her yet. I am nervous to give it to her because she has no sysmptoms and seems better for a week now. I hate to give antibiotics when not needed.

What would you suggest? Is it safe to wait it out since she has no symptoms or fever?

Thank you.

[heatherdeg]

I have exactly that issue: the urinalysis NEVER shows a problem and when I insist they run cultures, it's screaming.  I KNOW this because I can FEEL it in my kidneys (in my back, rather).  I don't get the burning so who knows how often I actually have them unknowingly.

I don't know what I would do but I personal don't think I would give her the Bactrim.  I would have immediately asked him why she needed it if the bacteria was flushed out; and what the worst case scenario would be for NOT giving it to her.  If the Dr. was particularly inhospitable to these questions and I didn't have access to another practitioner, I would probably note that the abx on a girl could make her susceptible to yeast infection which you're not really looking forward to with a 5yo... kwim?

Maybe someone else can jump in with a more concrete reason to give the abx, though.

[DrBobSears]

Yes, kids can flush out UTIs and get over them without antibiotics. With only 10K bacterial growing, that's only a mild UTI. If symptom free, then it's ok not to treat. YOu can do Vit C, cranberry, and lot of water for several days to help be sure it's flushed out

[heatherdeg]

OMG--I'm so so sorry!  I didn't realize what forum this was--I found it in "unanswered posts".  I didn't mean to imply that Dr. Sears wouldn't respond by saying "maybe someone else will give a more concrete reason"--I honestly thought it was the Health & Healing forum.

My apologies.  I will be much more careful in the future!