Kidney stones are common in the United States. One in 10 people will develop one at some point in their life.
Once rare in children, doctors say cases are becoming much more frequent.
Two years ago, at just 15 years old, Avery Kiehl developed a kidney stone.
“All of a sudden, I started feeling like a sharp pain,” Kiehl described.
Kiehl’s mother, Brandi, remembers it vividly.
“When I went upstairs and saw her, I was scared. She was just writhing in pain,” Brandi said.
After ruling out appendicitis, doctors found a kidney stone.
“I was hoping that it was just a fluke and that it wouldn’t happen again,” said Brandi.
But a year later, during finals week, Avery developed a second one.
“I kind of knew it right away because there’s nothing really like that pain,” she told Ivanhoe.
Avery now has regular checkups. And during a recent ultrasound, doctors found yet another kidney stone.
“Unfortunately, kidney stones are recurrent in about 30 to 50% of the cases within five years,” said Dr. Andrew Schwaderer, a pediatric nephrologist at Riley Children’s Health.
He says over the past several decades, there has been a steady rise of kidney stone cases in children, especially teen girls. Doctors don’t know what’s causing the increase, but diet might be a factor.
“Most of the time, they have a very low-calcium diet. About 9 times out of 10, the child does not drink milk,” explained Schwaderer.
He recommends three servings of calcium a day, limiting salt and sodium, and drinking plenty of water. Avery is now focusing on all three of those with her daily diet.
“It’s been a pretty big change, but my like whole family has started doing it too, so it’s not too hard keeping away from certain things when we just don’t have it in the house,” she said.
Schwaderer says in adults, there tends to be a link between kidney stones and obesity.
But he says many kids who develop a kidney stone are slender and a healthy weight.
Schwaderer also says kidney stones tend to be silent, meaning there are typically no symptoms until one starts to pass. That’s when the sudden, severe pain will begin.