A Week's Encounter with UTI

Our family had a superb time last weekend. We went to Active Fun the Friday before for unli-play, the next day we went malling, and the next day we headed out to get some milk tea. I was planning to blog all about that superb weekend in the next few days. Who would have thought that we would be spending the rest of the following week in the hospital?

Hay, hindi ko din naisip ever. But we did. And sadly, it was because my daughter was the one who was going through the sickness. Sana nga ako na lang. :(

Monday, the little one was feeling wonderful naman. She started the day 'fishing' with this 70-peso toy we bought her at the mall. She kept on making kwento about our weekend, stuff we did, and that she was so happy. I did notice one thing amiss, when she went to the restroom to pee, she mentioned it was painful.

I thought, 'oh nooo, I think I know what this is'. So I told her to drink lots of water. I planned to bring her to the pedia the next day to get her checked for UTI. She was fine the rest of the afternoon and early evening. Her fever started to climb at around 10pm. From a not-so-scary 38, her temperature climbed to 39.8 range (despite a paracetamol dose a couple of hours before) at midnight. We did the sponge bath thing and another round of paracetamol after four hours - her fever stayed in the same range.

I decided to have her brought to the emergency room. She underwent a urinalysis and the results showed she indeed has UTI - the infection was actually really bad that the pus cells were 'too numerous to count'. The ER doctor said she can prescribe antibiotics, and that we can continue the treatment at home. Since she wasn't vomiting and was still able to eat the night before, I opted to try the at-home treatment first.

But on the day that followed, unfortunately, she did not show any improvement. Her fever was consistently in the high 39s and was almost bordering on hitting 40. K was very lethargic, and would eat only a bird's share of food. It was also so hard to make her take liquids. Come night-time, hindi na talaga ko mapakali - I told hubby that I want her to be admitted. Dehydration was something I don't want to add up to this infection.

So there - we stayed in the hospital from Tuesday night to Saturday night - it was a really nasty amount of infection that K got since her bout with fever lasted from Tuesday to Friday morning (her symptoms improved around Thursday). It made me all paranoid and thinking of worst case scenarios. My husband thought I was going nuts - I told him I was just covering all bases. Nasa hospital na rin lang kami, why not ask the docs about each and every observation right? The doctors appeased me naman that so far, all the manifestations she's showing were not out-of-the-ordinary.

K in the hospital. Super lethargic. :(

Here are the symptoms of UTI I observed in my 3 year and 11 months old girl:

• pain when urinating 
• fever
• lower backache
• frequent visits to the restroom to pee
• very little pee 
• cloudy urine
• inactivity and appears really ill 

I think I may have had a case of UTI before, but it was never this severe. I never got fevers, or chills, or backaches because of it. So when my daughter experienced them, I freaked out. I don't remember her having UTI before either, most of the time eh upper respiratory tract infection (URTI) pa nga.

Advise to mommies, at the first tell-tale sign of any of these symptoms (some may not occur in all cases), increase fluid intake immediately. More water, more fun. Don't think twice about going to the pedia either. E ano kung 'OA, doctor agad?' ang dating - it doesn't matter what other people may think. What matters is your kiddos feel better the soonest.


I was thinking what may have caused her UTI and these are my possible culprits:

• The past weekend, she binged on Coke. As in from Friday to Sunday (I know, my fault, my fault). She doesn't drink it often naman, pero yung past weekend na yun, she drank more Coke than water - so there. 
• Use of public restrooms. Since she's been potty-trained for almost a couple of years na, we let her be diaper-free na even when we go out. Kaya lang yun yung downside, use of public restrooms (we know how ewww those places can get) - so we really have to be extra careful next time. 
• Nagpipigil sya ng wiwi. Just like other little kids, K can get really focused on what she's doing, especially if it's play. In short, even if she feels the need to pee, she doesn't go dahil 'busy' sya.

She was (still is) on antibiotics to cure the infection, and is so far recovering quite well. As per her doctor's advise she needs to increase fluid intake, stay away from junk food and sodas, and no more no more to 'batya baths'.

Fortunately, hindi naman mahilig si K sa junk food. We also plan to let her drink a bit more buko juice (our traditional remedy for UTI), and like a friend suggested, cranberry juice. She actually tried both, and for some reason, mas nagustuhan nya cranberry juice (I think it tastes weird. Hehe).

Finally home! :)

It's going to be a conscious effort to fight against UTI, pero I swear, I'll exert every effort I can to avoid any future encounters with it. :) For more info on kiddie UTI, you can read more about it here.

Here's to a better weekend for everyone!