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Home › Articles › Health Issues › Kid-size Kidney Stones

Kid-size Kidney Stones

A New Concern for Parents

By Suzy Feine

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Five-year-old Alex Williamson of Savage, Minn., returns to his elementary school after undergoing a series of tests and medical examinations at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis. He is eager to get back to his kindergarten class. "I have knee stones," he reports to the school secretary.

That's kidney stones, honey," laughs Danielle Williamson, Alex's mother.

The secretary looks confused. "How could it possibly be kidney stones?" she asks.

A Growing Concern
One of the most common disorders of the urinary tract in adults, kidney stones are increasingly common in children's urinary tracts, much to the surprise of many parents.

"Kidney stones occur because of a variety of factors, including defined metabolic and genetic disorders and exposure to medication and other environmental influences, including geographic location and socioeconomic level," says Dr. John C. Pope IV, physician and assistant professor of urologic surgery and pediatrics at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville, Tenn.

Vanderbilt Children's Hospital recently opened a pediatric kidney stone clinic to provide services for children affected by kidney stones. Tennessee lies in what doctors describe as the "kidney stone belt": Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia.

Not Just Hereditary
Dr. Yuri Reinberg, pediatric urologist at Pediatric Surgical Associates in Minnesota, says the majority of children with stones have some type of metabolic anomaly – an irregularity in the way the body processes certain minerals. "Ninety-two percent of these [cases] are calcium-related anomalies," says Dr. Reinberg. "Most common are calcium phosphate supersaturation and calcium oxalate supersaturation."

Calcium phosphate stones contain calcium and phosphate, while calcium oxalate stones contain calcium in combination with oxalate. These chemicals are present in every body as part of a normal diet. Urine contains certain chemicals that inhibit these minerals from binding together and forming crystals; however, these inhibitors don't work for everyone.


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