How is reflux treated?
Reflux can be corrected by surgery. However, most children will get better as they grow older. Therefore, your child may be treated with antibiotics to prevent infection. Only one child in ten will contract an infection when taking antibiotics.
Sometimes it is hard to decide what is best for your child. If your doctor suggests surgery, you may want to get a second opinion from a pediatric urologist, who specializes in reflux conditions in children. Most American children's hospitals have one of these doctors on staff. The doctor should evaluate other possible causes of reflux, such as voiding disorders, which usually cause a loss of bladder control. Some children's hospitals have training programs to help children develop better urination control.
How is reflux diagnosed? Are there signs to alert parents to the problem?
Usually, reflux is found when you take your child to the doctor after a urinary tract infection. About 50 percent of babies and 30 percent of older children with infections will have reflux. The back flow of urine to the kidney can cause a urinary infection to spread to the kidney, which can make your child very sick and can lead to kidney damage. You may notice that your child:
goes to the bathroom more often
says, "It burns" or "It hurts" when urinating
says, "My stomach hurts"
has a fever.
Take your child to a doctor, who will get a urine culture if he or she suspects an infection.
With the referral approved, we went and saw the nephrologist. The doctor informed us that upon reviewing the ultrasound, he could not confirm or deny that Orion had an issue.
He then went on to explain what kidney reflux is and then recommended that we wait until he had a urine infection to look into this issue further.
With that said, I asked him how you know if a 'baby' gets a urine infection? He said you would need to keep an eye out for:
excessive peeing
pain when urinating
pain in stomach
unknown fevers
constipation
foul odor when urinating
All the same, that didn't help me understand what to look for as we believe he is already in pain and constipated. Plus, if a fever broke out than that would raise more concerns in reference to his heart, and or COVID?
So I made the decision to proceed with looking further to see if he has an infection or not? (Even though it was against the doctors wishes. But he was only looking at it from one side [his profession], whereas I am looking at it from two sides [as he already had heart surgery and now this].)
So the verdict is, is that Orion will have a procedure done here within the next month, that will determine if he has a kidney infection or not.
The procedure consists of putting a catheter up Orion's penis and injecting dye into him to see which way it flows. If it flows back into him, then we know he has an infection, which means he would be on antibiotics until it goes away, which could be 6 months to 3 years. If it lasts 5 years, than surgery will need to be discussed. However if it comes back negative, then he will not need a follow-up ultrasound until about 3 months later [when hopefully his kidney's have grown] to see if there are any underlying issues that need to be researched further.