Newborn baby boy crying while urinating, beware of urinary tract infection

Regardless of whether the newborn baby is a boy or a girl, they may cry and be restless in the middle of the night due to various problems. However, if parents find that their boy babies often cry and make a fuss when they urinate, and they can obviously feel the pain of the child, this symptom may be caused by a urinary tract infection. In fact, because babies do not change diapers frequently, their body resistance is relatively poor and they are more susceptible to urethritis. Parents need to pay special attention to this.

What is a Urinary Tract Infection

Urinary tract infection refers to the invasion of pathogenic microorganisms into the urinary system, which multiply in the urine and invade the urinary tract mucosa or tissues, causing an inflammatory response. It is divided into upper urinary tract infection and lower urinary tract infection.

Upper urinary tract infection refers to pyelonephritis, and lower urinary tract infection refers to cystitis and urethritis. Upper urinary tract infection is very harmful, with the highest incidence rate in infants and young children.

Why are babies more susceptible to urinary tract infections?

Because babies often use diapers or wear open-crotch pants, the urethral opening is often contaminated by feces and other unclean things. Escherichia coli, Proteus, and other pathogens accumulate around the urethral opening, looking for opportunities to invade.

Especially for baby girls, whose urethra is short and sphincter function is poor, bacteria can easily go up along the urethra to the bladder. When the bladder holds urine, bacteria can easily go back up through the ureter and cause renal pelvic infection.

In addition, infants and young children have incomplete immunity and poor defense capabilities, which not only easily cause ascending infection, but also may cause descending urethral infection due to upper respiratory tract infection, pneumonia, bacteremia, etc. Therefore, the younger the baby, the higher the incidence rate.

Symptoms of a Urinary Tract Infection

For most babies, an unexplained fever may be the only symptom. About 5% of babies who have a fever without other symptoms develop a urinary tract infection. Among the symptoms are:

(1) If your baby often cries, refuses to eat, or is irritable, this may be a sign of discomfort or pain in the urethra;

(2) The baby's diaper needs to be changed frequently, but the amount of urine excreted each time is not much, which may be a manifestation of frequent urination and urgency;

(3) Babies often have diaper rash on their perineum and smelly diapers, which may be signs of urinary tract infection.

Preventing Urinary Tract Infections

1. Clean properly

Take good care of your baby's perineum, that is, clean his buttocks after each bowel movement. It is best not to wear open-crotch pants, and change diapers and underwear frequently.

Parents should pay attention to the method of cleaning the vulva, that is, cleaning from front to back (from the urethra to the anus), especially for baby girls.

When cleaning the perineum of a baby boy, be careful not to turn back his foreskin to avoid causing damage.

In addition, when wiping, you should also pay attention to the cleaning of the skin folds under the penis and testicles, and the roots of the thighs to prevent residual urine or feces stains.

After cleaning the perineum, you can apply plant oil lotion to the buttocks, because it has a strong bactericidal and moisturizing effect. It can not only clean the skin, but the zinc oxide in it can also protect the skin.