As a nurse I have seen the number of babies admitted to the hospital with serious kidney infections grow. There are two primary reasons for this.  One is because of the increase in the use of disposable diapers and the other is the lack of educating parents in how to clean a baby while changing their infant’s diaper.  Disposable diapers can fool a parent into thinking their child’s diaper is clean because they hold the wetness or soiled diaper longer before soaking through.  Soiled diapers when left on an infant for an extended period of time allows the bacteria in feces to travel up to the bladder and into the kidney.  Also, it is important to wash an infant from the front to the back.  That way the feces are not carried forward.

    Females have more of a tendency to get a urinary tract infection or kidney infection then males.  Women should be sure to wipe front to back after urinating.  Women should also urinate immediately after having sexual relations.  Both of these will help to eliminate the possibility of an infection.  Kidney infections, if they happen frequently, can permanently damage the kidney.  I know of two young women in their early twenties who have lost one kidney because of frequent kidney infections.  There is an American idiom that says “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.