Thread: A Rise in Kidney Stones Is Seen in U.S. Children

October 28, 2008
A Rise in Kidney Stones Is Seen in U.S. Children
By LAURIE TARKAN
To the great surprise of parents, kidney stones, once considered a disorder of middle age, are now showing up in children as young as 5 or 6.

While there are no reliable data on the number of cases, pediatric urologists and nephrologists across the country say they are seeing a steep rise in young patients. Some hospitals have opened pediatric kidney stone clinics.

“The older doctors would say in the ’70s and ’80s, they’d see a kid with a stone once every few months,â€

In China recently, many children who drank milk tainted with melamine — a toxic chemical illegally added to watered-down milk to inflate the protein count — developed kidney stones.

[quote]Children also tend not to drink enough water. “They don’t want to go to the bathroom at school; they don’t have time, so they drink less,â€

Lunch at the local elementary schools in Fla. were extremely non-healthy. Monday would be pizza, Tuesday would be corn dogs, Wednesday macaroni and cheese, etc.
There were even vending machines where kids could spend their lunch money on chips and candy and soft drinks. I have sent a few poignant messages to the school board, but they liked the income from the vending machines much more than worrying about health.
And years ago I read an article that said that kids that ate more than 12 hot dogs a month did poorer in school than kids who did not. To me that only means that kids from poor families that cannot afford a healthy diet and can only afford hot dogs are doomed to fail.