Children can have symptoms of
stinging when they urinate. It is called Dysuria and can be a sign of
infection. But 90% of the time it is just irritation caused by soaps and/or
poor hygiene. The kids become potty trained and want to go to the restroom
by themselves. Then they do not wipe or wrong direction. You will go in
there and they did not flush and there is no paper in the toilet. The girls
will have a little odor and periodic chafing which will cause occasional
stinging when they urinate. But the next time they urinate it does not.
That is not an infection. A urine infection will cause all day long
burning, frequency and accidents. There can be some white cells in the
urinalysis from irritation but the culture is what will prove infection.
Do not accept a urinalysis to diagnose urine infections… request a culture.
Also cleaning their private area too vigorously with chemical wipes can
cause irritation. Swimming a lot in the summer and riding trikes or bikes
with the sweat and friction can cause irritation also. After 2 years old I
do not recommend baby soaps, fragrance soaps, or any products that causes
bubbles on the surface of the water. They remove the protective mucous
lining of their privates. Use Dove or Oil of Olay unscented bar of soap.
Put Vaseline or A&D ointment down there if it becomes chafed and if it is
getting irritated every week, then put a thin coating of ointment down there
after every bath. It will be several years until they take better care of
that area. Males can be irritated also and especially if not circumcised.
Plus it is hard to potty train them if it hurts. There is a condition
called asymptomatic bacteriuria. There are some bacteria in the bladder
with no symptoms and does not need to be treated unless they have
significant kidney problems or catheters. So a doctor may culture the urine
of a child with once a week urine stinging and treat it. This probably is
not a true infection but it does not hurt much to treat it. Those bacteria
may have been there for months. Kind of like when a child has a mild sore
throat and has a positive test for strep. The strep could have been there
for months and the child is a carrier. If you have true strep throat you
are acting ill and have fever. So it sometimes is hard to decide if the
occasional dysuria is from the positive urine culture.
There is no good way to treat the
symptom other than the ointment. Cranberry will not help
