CKD Causes in Children

Kidney disease can affect children in various ways, ranging from treatable disorders without long-term consequences to life-threatening conditions. Acute kidney disease develops suddenly, lasts a short time, and can be serious with long-lasting consequences or may go away completely once the underlying cause has been treated. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) does not go away with treatment and tends to get worse over time. CKD eventually leads to kidney failure, described as end-stage kidney disease or ESRD when treated with a kidney transplant or blood-filtering treatments called dialysis.

Children with CKD or kidney failure face many challenges, which can include
· a negative self-image
· relationship problems
· behavior problems
· learning problems
· trouble concentrating
· delayed language skills development
· delayed motor skills development

Children with CKD may grow at a slower rate than their peers, and urinary incontinence—the loss of bladder control, which results in the accidental loss of urine—is common.

What causes CKD in children?

In adults, the major causes of CKD are diabetes and high blood pressure. At present, these are not major causes of CKD in children. However, diabetes and high blood pressure are increasing among children, mostly because growing numbers of children are overweight. Being overweight greatly increases the risk of developing serious health problems like diabetes, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol and CKD. Currently, the major causes of CKD in children include:

Problems in the urinary tract that block the normal flow of urine
Inherited diseases such as polycystic kidney disease (PKD), which causes fluid-filled pouches to form in the kidneys and enlarge over time
Conditions that damage the filtering units of the kidneys (the glomeruli) such as focal segmental glomerulosclerosis.


Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a disease that affects both the blood and blood vessels. Kidney failure may occur as a result of damage to small blood vessels in the kidneys. HUS may also affect other organs such as the heart and brain.