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Helping a child live with kidney disease: school, IEPs and 504 plans, self-esteem, friends, sports, the treatment plan, and growing up
For the parents and caregivers of a child or teenager with chronic kidney disease (CKD), at any stage or on dialysis. It passes on, by name, what the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK, part of the NIH) says about helping a child adapt to life with CKD: how it can affect learning, mood and friendships; school, IEPs, 504 plans and missed days (a right, not a favor); self-esteem, friends, camps and bladder control; sports and play; a treatment plan your child takes part in; getting ready for college and work; and the social worker, mental health professional and dietitian who can help. It builds the questions to ask and prints a card for your child’s school. Nothing is saved.
A word with a dotted line under it, like this, opens its official definition, quoted from a U.S. government glossary.
Right now
- Your child talks about hurting themselves or not wanting to live? Call or text 988 now, any hour, free, for any age, and stay with your child (ours). In danger right now: call 911.
- A child who is very ill, very hard to wake, or struggling to breathe? Call 911 (ours).
- For you: thoughts of suicide, or all too much? Call or text 988 (ours).
More help
- On this site: Kidney disease in children · Feeding a child with kidney disease · Kidneys, bladder and urine: find the right page.
- School: Help at school for your child · Letters to your child’s school. Feelings: Depression · Bedwetting.
- Treatment: Hemodialysis · Peritoneal dialysis · Kidney transplant · Get ready for your appointment.
- For you: Caring for someone · When you need food · When you need a doctor and can’t pay. In an emergency: Help right now (988, 911). All our free tools.
Kidneys, bladder or urine, and not sure this is the right page? The pages on this site for bladder infections, kidney stones, blood in the urine, bladder pain, bladder leaks, the prostate, kidney disease and bedwetting, on one list.
Other guides on this site that go with this page
Free to read. We chose these ourselves; no professional did. Each guide was written with AI and has not been reviewed by a professional. They are general information, not advice.
- Growth failure in children with kidney disease: what it is, what slows growth, growth charts, food, medicines, and growth hormone: growth failure in a child with chronic kidney disease (CKD): what it is and how common it is; who is more likely; what can slow growth; growth charts and percentiles; food, a feeding tube, medicines and growth hormone; puberty, feelings and a transplant; and starting early.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No doctor, nurse, counselor or lawyer has reviewed it. The facts were read on October 21, 2026 on NIDDK’s (NIH) page Helping Your Child Adapt to Life with Chronic Kidney Disease (last reviewed February 2023). NIDDK’s page links to U.S. Department of Education and Department of Labor pages about IDEA, IEPs, 504 plans and disability employment; those sites would not open for our reader, so we name them but do not link them. We add no numbers and name no medicine. Ours: calling or texting 988 and staying with a child who talks about hurting themselves or not wanting to live; the 911 lines; putting school requests in writing; never stopping a medicine on your own; asking your child before telling others; 988 for you; the questions to ask; the card; the links to our other pages; and the order of the steps. What we left out: NIDDK’s section on research studies. Nothing you tick or type here is saved or sent.