Kidney Infection Symptom
by Brian B. Carter, MS, LAc

So you're wondering if you have a kidney infection symptom? Urinary tract infections can lead to kidney infections if they're not properly treated. So you might first want to check out the urinary tract infection symptoms... when you get a kidney infection symptom, it's time to do something serious, because not treating it properly can lead to permanent damage and change your health for the rest of your life.

A kidney infection is also called pyelonephritis. Each kidney infection symptom can range from mild to severe. Most people who have a kidney infection will have two or more of these kidney infection symptoms:

Pain in the back just below the rib cage on one side of the body (flank pain). Flank pain occurs when a kidney is inflamed. Fever [100 °F (37.8 °C) or higher] or chills, nausea or vomiting, burning pain with urination (dysuria), a frequent urge to urinate without being able to pass much urine (frequency), cloudy urine (pyuria), abdominal pain.

When a kidney infection occurs, usually only one kidney is infected.

What kidney infection symptoms should you look for in a child? For children over the age of two, the symptoms are exactly the same as above. But if they are under two years old, vague signs like diarrhea or abdominal pain could be a kidney infection symptom.

More Kidney Infection Links:

• All about Pyelonephritis and Kidney Infection Symptoms from the National Kidney and Urologic Diseases Information Clearinghouse
• A Child's Kidney Infection Symptom at MeritCare