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Kidney stones in children: the pain and the signs, when to get care right away, the four types, the tests, passing or removing a stone, and preventing the next one
For a parent or caregiver whose child or teen has, or may have, a kidney stone. It passes on, by name, what the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK, part of the NIH) says: what kidney stones are and the four types; how common they are and which children are more likely; the signs, and what untreated stones can lead to; the urine, blood and imaging tests; passing a small stone or removing a larger one; and preventing the next one with liquids, food and, sometimes, medicine. It builds the questions to ask and prints a card. 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
- Severe pain, blood in the urine, vomiting, or cannot urinate? NIDDK says a child with these needs care right away: call the child’s doctor now, or go to urgent care or an emergency room (where to go: ours).
- Very hard to wake, struggling to breathe, or seems very ill? Call 911 (ours).
- For you, the grown-up: thoughts of suicide, or all too much? Call or text 988, any hour, free (ours).
More help
- The kidneys on this site: Kidney stones (adults) · Blood in the urine · Kidney infection · Renal tubular acidosis · Kidney disease in children · Kidneys, bladder and urine: find the right page.
- Tests and care: UTI in a baby or child · Urinary tract imaging · Cystoscopy and ureteroscopy · Symptom diary.
- For you: Get ready for your appointment. 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.
- How the kidneys work: where they are, what they do, the nephrons, and how blood flows through them: how the kidneys work (where they are, what they do, the nephrons, the glomerulus and the tubule, and how blood flows through them): the wastes, the balance of water, salts and minerals, the hormones, the numbers in a day, and the words in plain language.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No doctor or nurse has reviewed it. The facts were read on October 21, 2026 on NIDDK’s (NIH) page Kidney Stones in Children, all six sections, last reviewed in May 2017. Ours: the 911 and 988 lines; never stopping or changing a medicine or a diet, a seizure medicine above all, without asking the doctor who prescribed it; asking a doctor before giving any supplement; keeping the stone and writing down its type; asking how to prepare a child for a test; the questions to ask; the card; the links to our other pages; and the order of the steps. What we left out: its section on clinical research, its references, its line on a study of the DASH eating plan, its list of label words for hidden sodium, and the other pages it links to, which we did not read. Nothing you tick or type here is saved or sent.