Kidney Diseases and Pediatrics Consultant at King Saud Medical City Dr. Khalid Al-Saaran has said that the major problems facing children during the summer season are acute gastroenteritis, food poisoning, sunstroke, and skin diseases such as the sweat glands inflammation.
To avoid such problems, Dr. Al-Saaran, who is also the Chairman of the Scientific Committee of Pediatric Nephrology, said that special care must be paid to the cleanliness of cooking pots and milk bottles and to the means of preserving children milk, warning of giving the child the remainder of previous feeding session. He also stressed the importance of preserving food, particularly during the outing, where food should be kept in cold or iced containers. In addition, Dr. Al-Saaran has warned of buying food from street vendors who, most of the time, do not comply with the proper ways of food preservation and expose food to the sunlight for long times. He also advised people to maintain their hygiene by taking a bath daily.
This came during the visit of Dr. Khalid Al-Saaran, the Kidney Disease and Pediatrics Consultant, to the National Center for Media and Health Awareness, within the context of the Ministry of Health's summer awareness campaign activities, through which the ministry is hosting a number of senior physicians and specialists for three consecutive weeks via the center's free toll number: 8002494444 and MOH's Twitter account: @saudimoh, in order to respond to the callers' inquiries and answer their questions and provide them with directives and medical advices about the summer diseases and ways to deal with and protect themselves against them and other diseases.
On the causes of kidney stones and the best ways to get rid of them, Dr. Al-Saaran said some of these causes are related to genes or to birth defects in the urinary tract, as a result of the higher salt concentration in urine, pointing out that the treatment depends on the size and type of the stone. 'If the size is small (less than 1 cm in diameter), the patient, in most cases, will be advised to drink a lot of water since the stone may come out with the urine, while the bigger stone will be fragmented by ultrasound scan, or otherwise by endoscopy or surgical intervention," he said.
For children born with one kidney, Dr. Khalid Al-Saaran said that in most cases they do not face any problems and they can survive with the one kidney provided they take good care of it and check regularly with a pediatrician to follow up the blood pressure. Amid the advices was the regular testing of the kidney's function and urine analysis; that is to be added to carrying out an annual ultrasound scan to make sure the kidney is growing normally.
On how often the kidney patient should drink water particularly in the summer season, Dr. Khalid Al-Saaran pointed out to the importance of differentiating between those having kidney failure and those having kidney stones, the former have to stick to the amount of water permitted by the treating doctor which is usually between one to one and half liter daily, whereas their inability to excrete the liquids from their body in the natural way makes the renal dialysis their only option. The patient should not push his doctor or nurse to take too much liquid during the renal dialysis, since taking high amounts of liquids during few hours may overburden the patient during and after the renal dialysis. On the other hand, the latter, i.e. those suffering from kidney stones, should drink a lot of water especially during hot weather because drinking too much water will help, Allah willing, in preventing the formation of the kidney stones.
Meanwhile, the National Center for Media and Health Awareness will host tomorrow (Tuesday) Pharmacist Miaad Abdul Raziq to provide awareness advices for diabetics, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. The center will host on the same day, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., Chest Diseases Consultant Dr. Naila Abu Aljadail to answer the callers' inquiries in this field, via the abovementioned toll free number and Twitter's account.