Symptoms of Nephritis in Children

Childhood Nephritis is generally referred as Glomerulonephritis and is a bilateral diffuse kidney disorder. It is a common disease among preschool children, especially among the children 5~9 years old. Nephritis in children is a secondary disease caused by bacteria and virus infection of the upper respiratory tract. After the antigens invade into body, they can cause a series of autoimmune response resulting in renal injury. In clinic, the children with Nephritis usually present the following symptoms.

1. Generally, Nephritis in children develops slowly. The children usually feel fatigue, listlessness, poor appetite. The onset age of Nephritis among children is younger than that of simple kidney disease. Nephritis usually occurs among the children older than 7 and it can affect more boys than girls with the proportion 4:1.

2. Swelling is an early symptom of Nephritis in children. It firstly appears around eyelids and then spread the whole body. In severe cases, the children may have ascetic, hydrothorax, scrotal edema etc which can cause vomiting, diarrhea and dyspnea. The swelling may appear frequently and occasional disappear automatically. In most cases, the swelling in Nephritis is mild so it is hard to notice it.

3. Hypoproteinemia in caused by Childhood Nephritis can cause malnutrition and slow development and growth. If the protein level in blood is low, it is very likely for the children to have infection.

4. When the swelling is serious, the urine output decreases obviously and the children even experience anuria. With 1~2 weeks, the urine output increases gradually along with eliminating of swelling.

5. Usually, the children have acute amygdalitis or skin pustules or other infections 1~4 weeks ago before the onset of the disease. At beginning, the children have low fever, headache, nausea, vomiting etc.

6. The children mostly do not have gross hematuria, but it may occur in some cases, in which, the urine becomes dark tea-colored.


The above article has introduced the common symptoms of Nephritis in children. Do you find what you need above? If not, you can consult us on line directly.