Acetone in the urine of a child: possible symptoms, principles of treatment

Ace­tone in the urine, or ace­tonuria, is a patho­log­i­cal con­di­tion that occurs due to exces­sive accu­mu­la­tion of ketone bod­ies in the blood of a child. This dis­or­der devel­ops as part of the ace­tone­mic syn­drome, accom­pa­nied by peri­od­ic ace­tone­mic crises. In this arti­cle, we will talk about ace­tone in the urine of a child in terms of symp­toms and treat­ment.

How is acetonemic syndrome manifested?

As we have already said, the pri­ma­ry clin­i­cal man­i­fes­ta­tion of this pathol­o­gy is recur­rent ace­tone­mic crises.

Symp­toms char­ac­ter­is­tic of crises can increase sud­den­ly or fol­low the pre­cur­sors — weak­ness and malaise, loss of appetite, nau­sea, headache, and so on.

• First of all, with an ace­tone cri­sis, repeat­ed vom­it­ing is observed, which quick­ly leads to dehy­dra­tion. Chil­dren with such a patho­log­i­cal con­di­tion become lethar­gic, drowsy, pale, move lit­tle.
• With­out fail, there is an increase in body tem­per­a­ture to sub­febrile or febrile val­ues. In most cas­es, there are spas­tic pains in the abdomen, accom­pa­nied by a vio­la­tion of the stool. In severe sit­u­a­tions, the clin­i­cal pic­ture may be sup­ple­ment­ed by con­vul­sive seizures.
• Anoth­er char­ac­ter­is­tic symp­tom is the smell of ace­tone com­ing from the mouth, urine or skin of the child.

In the absence of the nec­es­sary med­ical care, the fre­quen­cy of ace­tone­mic crises may become more fre­quent, and the attacks them­selves may become more severe.

Tactics of treatment for acetonemic syndrome

In the event of a cri­sis, the child must be hos­pi­tal­ized in the depart­ment of the appro­pri­ate pro­file.

• First of all, mea­sures are tak­en to elim­i­nate dehy­dra­tion. For this pur­pose, the baby can be giv­en plen­ty of flu­ids (oral rehy­dra­tion). How­ev­er, some­times in more severe cas­es, there is a need for infu­sion ther­a­py.
• Addi­tion­al­ly, antiemet­ics, seda­tives, anti­spas­mod­ics and oth­er symp­to­matic drugs are pre­scribed.

In most cas­es, with the right choice of ther­a­py, all the symp­toms of an ace­tone cri­sis can be stopped with­in five days.

Out­side of an attack, the child must fol­low a spe­cial diet — fat­ty foods, smoked meats, and spicy dish­es are lim­it­ed. The basis of the diet should be plant foods, low-fat dairy prod­ucts, cere­als.

It is also rec­om­mend­ed to ensure that the baby sleeps enough, more often was in the fresh air. If pos­si­ble, hard­en­ing pro­ce­dures should be car­ried out.

In addi­tion, as pre­scribed by a doc­tor, vit­a­min com­plex­es, gas­tro­pro­tec­tors, enzymes, and so on can be tak­en.

Var­i­ous bio­log­i­cal­ly active addi­tives are often used, for exam­ple, an oral liq­uid con­tain­ing argi­nine and betaine, the effec­tive­ness of which in the treat­ment of ace­tone­mic syn­drome in chil­dren has been proven by sci­en­tists from the Donet­sk Nation­al Med­ical Uni­ver­si­ty. M. Gorky in a work pub­lished in 2015.

Be sure to reg­u­lar­ly mon­i­tor the lev­el of ace­tone in the urine, for exam­ple, using spe­cial test strips.