Caiden

Sixteen-month-old Caiden was diagnosed with congenital nephrotic syndrome when he was nine days old.

Congenital nephrotic syndrome is a very rare form of nephrotic syndrome, affecting between one and three children in every 100,000 worldwide. Children with the disorder have abnormal kidney filters, which causes too much protein to leak into the urine.

Caiden suffered a stroke at birth and clots on the brain and spent his first three months in hospital.  He requires 24-hour feeding by NG tube to balance cyclic diarrhoea, vomiting, and oedema (swelling due to a build-up of fluid).

Caiden currently visits the Queensland Children’s Hospital twice a week to undergo albumin infusion to replace the albumin (a protein) that the kidneys have lost. He will require ongoing treatment and albumin infusions until his kidneys fail, at which time he will require kidney transplants.

Caiden’s mum, Jess, who provides around-the-clock care to Caiden, says it has been an emotional and very hard road.  But despite the pain and illness Caiden constantly endures, Jess says he is a beautiful and easygoing little boy.

“At the end of every day, good or bad, we have a beautiful, happy, kind-hearted and strong-minded baby boy. Caiden is so loved and precious. He truly defines the word “fighter”.