Pediatric kidney transplantation part 186

Why are children different than adults?

Children are growing; they are changing and maturing all the time. For instance, when thinking about the right dose for a child, the transplant team look at their stage of growth. An eight month old is completely different than an eight year old who, in turn, is completely different than an 18 year old. 

So, even among children, everyone is different. And at each of these stages of growth, they may need different doses of medicine, different sizes of devices, or different types of therapy.

Many medications are filtered out of the body and handled differently by a child's developing livers or kidneys. Because research has been so limited, the transplanted team  don't know how the medications will affect these organs in the long term.