In the article, we will consider a general urine test in a child.
Any disease diagnosed at an early stage is much easier to treat than its advanced form. This rule is especially relevant for the child's body, because its pathology often develops faster than in adults. It is possible to detect the disease at the initial stage thanks to clinical tests, including a general urine test in a child. It is necessary to carefully monitor the occurrence of the first warning signs that may indicate the onset of serious he alth problems in a small patient.
Collection of urine from children
For a general analysis, a portion of urine is taken in the morning, immediately after waking up (on an empty stomach), before that, thorough hygiene procedures are carried out.
Dishes for collecting biomaterial for analysis must be dry and clean. Urine should be stored forconducting the study no more than one and a half hours. If you are taking any medications, you should notify your doctor about this, as some drugs affect the results of the analysis.
Don't drink too much mineral water, as the reaction of urine changes because of this. It is necessary that the previous urination occurred no later than 5-6 hours before receiving morning urine.
Every parent should know how to pass a general urine test for a child.
Preparing the container
It is necessary in the evening to choose dishes made of transparent white glass, with a volume of about 100 milliliters, with an airtight lid. You can purchase a container at the pharmacy.
A container with a lid is thoroughly washed in soapy water, doused with boiling water. Put, without wiping, dry upside down.
Patient preparation and analysis collection
How to prepare for a general urine test in a child?
You need to wash your hands with soap. The child should be washed immediately after waking up.
For girls: wash the external genital area from front to back. First, the area between the labia is thoroughly washed (using a cotton swab moistened with a pale solution of potassium permanganate, chamomile or plain water).
Boys: when washing, you need to slightly move the skin from the head of the penis (of course, without causing pain in the child). Until the age of three, boys may have physiological phimosis (a condition in which the head is not completely removed), but the skin should still be slightly pushed back forrinsing the area underneath it under water. Forcibly open the head is prohibited, it may cause injury.
The most convenient procedure for collecting material for a general urine test of a child at 3 years old is to be carried out in the bathroom. Different tactics for collecting urine are used depending on age.
For girls: holding the labia in a parted position, release a little urine (one to two seconds) past the container.
Boys: holding the foreskin in the retracted position, let out some urine also past the jar. After that, urination is not interrupted, the container is substituted under the jet and half filled.
The dishes must be carefully closed with a lid.
How much urine is required for a general analysis of a child? The minimum amount that is sufficient for at least partial testing is 10 ml. If mom managed to collect it, the laboratory assistants will take the sample. It is desirable that the level of urine in the container is at least 1 cm from the bottom of the container. It is recommended to take a medium portion.
After a year, up to 100 milliliters of urine can be excreted in children. The child is slowly weaning from diapers, switching to using the potty. 50-70 ml is enough for research.
Collecting urine from young children
The first way. To collect material for a general urine test in a child at 2 years old, you can use a special disposable children's urinal. It is a small elongated transparent bag with a sticky edging and a hole. It is sold in a pharmacy and can be used for both boys and girls. Recommended to buy immediatelya few pieces in case one gets damaged.
How to collect a general urine test from children is interesting to many.
To collect urine, the urinal is attached in accordance with its instructions. After filling, the adhesive base of the device is carefully folded, the hole is closed. They are attached to the baby's skin, best in the morning, so that urination happens when you wake up in the morning.
There is another way. The container is taken in hand (it is advisable not to touch its neck). Urine from a boy can be collected directly into a dish or into a condom. To collect the biomaterial from the girl, you need to sterilize the saucer, heat it under warm water. Then put the girl on it, then after urination, pour the urine into the prepared dishes.
Indicators: norm and possible deviations
First of all, you need to determine what indicators are analyzed in the process of a general urine test in a child. Let's consider each of them in more detail.
Organoleptic indicators in the study of the urine of a child
How is the decoding of a general urine test in children? The first stage is the study of organoleptic indicators - the smell and appearance of urine and some other properties.
Volume. So, what does a general urine test in children reveal? The norm, according to which a certain amount of urine should be produced per day, is known. Naturally, this indicator is determined not only by the patient's state of he alth and age, but also by external factors -the amount of food eaten and fluids drunk, air temperature and physical activity. You can calculate an approximate normal level of urine volume during the day as follows: 600 + 100 × (N - 1) u003d volume in milliliters, where N is the child's age. Using this formula, you can get a normal value with an error of 200 to 300 milliliters. With a daily amount exceeding the result obtained by more than twice, the cause may be cystitis, hypothermia, inflammation or neurosis. If the volume is less than a third of the norm, there may be kidney disease.
Color. Children's urine has a normal shade - amber, light yellow. Shades of urine that are different from normal can be caused by foods (such as beets) and drugs. If these factors are not taken into account, then pale or colorless urine may indicate diabetes mellitus, saturated red color indicates kidney injury.
It should be noted that the urine of a newborn baby during the first ten days after birth can vary from clear to orange-brick. This is quite normal and is due to the development of the child's genitourinary system.
Smell. This also reveals a general urine test in children. Normally, the urine of a newborn almost does not smell, over time, a specific characteristic odor appears in the secretions, but most often it is not expressed strongly. A strong smell signals acetonemia, a urinary tract infection, or diabetes.
What other indicators of a general urine test in childrenhappen?
Foamy. When the vial with the biomaterial is shaken, an unstable white foam will appear on its surface, which disappears rather quickly. This result is normal. With a long settling of foam, we can talk about a large amount of protein. This is the norm for babies. However, when a baby comes out of infancy, excessive foaminess can indicate allergies, stress, dehydration, hypothermia, or a recovery period after an infectious pathology.
Transparency. In children, fresh urine is mostly clear. But, after standing for a while, it can become cloudy. Such a reaction is due to the influence of external factors or the peculiarities of the child's nutrition and is normal if it is not constant. Otherwise, when the transparency changes, we can talk about calcium oxalate or uric acid diathesis.
Analysis of children's urine: physical and chemical parameters
Density, also called specific gravity, can change depending on various external factors and age. The normal value is from 1,003 to 1,035 grams per liter, and in newborns it most often approaches the lower limit and increases as they grow older. Increased urine density appears with excessive fluid intake, diabetes, oliguria, or dehydration. A low value can also indicate diabetes insipidus, polyuria, or kidney failure.
Acidity (pH). Its normal value is five to seven on the pH scale. When collecting analysisafter eating, a slight excess of this level may be recorded. In other cases, a high degree of pH may indicate chronic kidney failure or tumors of the genitourinary organs, low - tuberculosis, diarrhea, dehydration, diabetes mellitus.
Common urine and blood tests are often prescribed for a child.
Biochemical parameters in the study of children's urine
Due to the biochemical composition of children's urine, you can understand how properly the genitourinary organs and kidneys function
Protein. Protein content is one of the most important characteristics in the general analysis of children's urine. If there is no pathology, then the protein is contained in an amount as close as possible to zero, no more than 0.08 grams per day (if there is physical activity, then no more than 0.25 grams). With an overestimated indicator, we can talk about the presence of inflammatory pathologies of the urinary tract in a child (for example, urethritis or cystitis), renal tuberculosis, tumors and some other specific diseases.
Glucose (sugar). This indicator, like the previous ones, should approach zero. It may be slightly higher if the child eats too many sugary foods, and also after a lot of stress, but such changes are short-lived. With a consistently high level of glucose for no apparent reason, it is necessary to additionally pass an analysis for this indicator in the near future. The only exception is newborn babies, for them the content of a certain concentration of sugar in the urine is considered within the normal range.
It is important to know thatbreastfeeding reduces the concentration of children's urine. Almost all substances received by the baby with mother's milk are processed by the body without waste. With artificial feeding, the load on the kidneys of the child increases.
Bilirubin. The content of this substance in the urine may indicate abnormalities in the activity of the liver or the presence of stones in the urinary tract or kidneys. It is also possible that the cause of a high degree of bilirubin is an unbalanced diet, for example, an excess of carbohydrates in the daily diet.
Ketone bodies. This term refers to the content in children's urine of substances such as beta-hydroxybutyric and acetoacetic acid, acetone. With a strong lack of glucose in the child's body, fats begin to actively break down, as a result of which ketone bodies are excreted in the urine and breath.
Sugar content in children's liver is lower than in adults, and therefore a high concentration of ketone bodies in urine can be triggered by carbohydrate deficiency, starvation and severe stress. However, there are also pathological factors - various infectious diseases or diabetes in a child.
Urobilinogen. This substance may be present in a he althy child in the urine, but only in small quantities. If the level of urobilinogen is higher than ten micromoles, then the presence of a disease is suspected - intestinal inflammation or liver failure.
Deciphering the general urine test in children should be carried out by a qualified specialist.
Microscopic properties of baby urine
Not everyone knows what this indicator means.
The study of such properties is carried out after a special procedure required to obtain a precipitate. By means of a centrifuge, the contents of the test tube are shaken for several minutes until the necessary dense suspension is obtained at the bottom of the vessel. It is this sediment that is studied under a microscope. The set of indicators of microscopic analysis of children's urine is divided into two types - inorganic and organic.
It is important to comply with hygiene requirements before biomaterial sampling. With insufficiently washed external genital organs of the child, there may be distortions in the result of the analysis. For example, when studying the sediment, an increased degree of leukocytes will be determined. There is no reason to worry if the content of white blood cells in the field of view is not more than five pieces, sometimes one of the kidney diseases is suspected. The content of red blood cells (erythrocytes) in a he althy child in the urine should not exceed two pieces also in the field of view. A high concentration indicates a particular viral infection, which is associated with fever, poisoning with toxins or urolithiasis.
The microscopic properties of the general analysis of children's urine also include the content of different types of cylindrical particles - waxy, granular and hyaline. For each species, the normal indicator is complete absence. If hyaline cylinders are found in the urine of a child, one should be wary of infectious diseases (rubella, measles,chickenpox, flu) Granular casts often accompany renal tubular lesions and fever. Wax cylindrical particles indicate chronic kidney pathologies.
Bacteria that are found in children's urine is a rather dangerous sign, which is most often accompanied by other symptoms - burning in the lower abdomen and pain when urinating. Their presence indicates pathologies of the child's urinary system.
Amylase is an enzyme produced in the pancreas. In case of violations of the activity of this organ, the substance penetrates into the blood and then into the urine. In children's urine, the normal concentration of amylase is up to 460 units per liter.
The next indicator is yeast. Their presence speaks of candidiasis, which, in turn, is the cause of incorrect antibiotic therapy. Inorganic substances that can be contained in children's urine are different types of s alts. Their presence in the sediment most often does not indicate any disease, but is only a symptom of the child's improper diet. For the listed analysis indicators to be reliable, you need to know what factors could affect the accuracy.
How to take a general urine test for a child, it is important to find out in advance.
Factors affecting the accuracy of results in this type of study
First of all, before taking the biomaterial, all hygiene recommendations must be observed. Otherwise, the finished result will be distorted by certain impurities. Before this, the child should be limited in the use of a number ofproducts that can affect the color of discharge - rhubarb, carrots, beets, etc. Medicines can also have the same effect - for example, aspirin can color urine pinkish. That is why, when interrupting the treatment course is undesirable, it is recommended to consult a specialist before the analysis.
The ability to decipher the results of the study of children's urine is a useful skill, it will come in handy if there is a suspicion of a disease. However, in no case should you make a diagnosis yourself. Only a professional doctor can assess the situation based on the totality of all factors.
Where can I donate baby urine?
If the child is a year old, a urinalysis may also be prescribed. Where to take it?
The choice of medical institutions in which the urine of a child is examined according to the indicators listed above is extremely extensive: from public clinics to private institutions. In Moscow, this can be done in the laboratories "MobilMed", "Biotest", "MedOk".
How to determine the quality of the future result of a general urine test? In children, they can also be erroneous. In this case, it is better to repeat the analysis.
