Watch for kidney stones in kids with abdominal pain

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Many children with kidney stones don't have the classical symptoms associated with the condition, such as painful, bloody urination, according to a new study.

Dr. Cesare Polito and co-researchers studied 100 patients, 3 to 18 years old, with recurrent abdominal pain and kidney stones.

They report in the journal Pediatrics that more than half - 53 percent - did not have a history of painful or bloody urination, and only about a third had blood in their urine when they saw their doctors.

Many of the children did not have the flank pain typically associated with kidney stones, instead having general pain in the abdomen.

The take home message: Doctors, and their parents, should consider kidney stones in kids with recurrent abdominal pain, especially those who have a history of such stones in the family, even if painful and blood urination is absent.

SOURCE: Pediatrics, 2009.