It may seem very depressing and tiring for a new mother to bear up with frequent urination in infants and having to change multiple diapers. An infant frequent urination could be a sign of abnormality in the infants urine like bacteria, blood or sugar with some also urinating more frequently simply because of intake of a lot of fluids or undergoing stress and anxiety. However it is not advisable to neglect frequent urination that could be due to more serious causes and see a pediatrician immediately to carry on an analysis of the urine and suggest suitable action of treatment if any. It is a well realized fact that professionals can easily diagnose the cause of an infant frequent urinating and take prompt preventive steps to avoid permanent damage to the kidneys due to extreme infective conditions of the urinary tract.
Some causes of an infant frequent urination
One of the serious and most embarrassing causes for frequent urination is infection in the urinary tract with bacteria. This is quite common in many infants with some also having pain and burning sensation while urinating. Besides urgency could be felt each time one urinates and sometimes fever and abdominal pain can also be felt. Urinary infection caused by the bacteria E-Coli mostly may show symptoms or not, with a urine analysis and culture being the most common diagnoses of this infection. Urinary tract infection is more common in infants that are girls than boys with treatment being though antibiotics. However many other natural methods like toilet hygiene and drinking a lot of water helps in eliminating the infection.
It is quite common to find that some children especially infants do not take enough time to empty their bladder and get easily distracted. This may cause the buildup of urine in the bladder with the splinter muscle that helps the infant to hold urine becoming overactive and not assisting complete voiding. This voiding dysfunction could be corrected with encouraging children to try and fully empty their bladder so that urination becomes regular and less frequent.
It is quite possible that the irritation of the skin in and around the vaginal region or opening of the urethra could cause frequent urination with the main cause being shampoos and soaps that are used for infants. Vulvovaginitis could seem like UTI, with the skin around the vaginal area not only being very sensitive, but also turning easily red and inflamed when irritants like soap and shampoo come in contact with it. Poor toilet hygiene could also be one of the causes that arise out of not cleaning after urinating or wiping in an incorrect way.
Another prominent cause for infant frequent urination could be diabetes mellitus that affects not just adults but children also with main symptoms like increased amount of urination at closer frequencies accompanied by drinking more water and fluids than infants usually do. Besides polydipsia or increase in fluid consumption there could be excessive eating or polyphagia with weight loss that could be unusual. It is common to note that children suffering from diabetes would in a routine urine analysis show the presence of glucose and ketones, with a blood test confirming it.
Another uncommon disorder that could cause not only increased urination but also excessive thirst is diabetes insipidus. Along with these symptoms there could be other prominent signs like bedwetting at night, irritability accompanied with poor growth. Care is to be taken as excessive loss of fluids from the body could lead to dehydration. This could show up as dilute urine with excess of sodium and serum in blood. The occurrence of renal tubular acidosis where the infants kidney is not able to properly dispose of acid could also frequency of urination in infants.
Look for these causes in infant frequent urination to find out a solution.