Some infants have fatty liver on US or CT scans done for other reasons, as in your case. There's no consensus on what to do in this situation, but I tend to just follow it, because it often goes away. We think it's often a consequence of fetal environment, and has some association with maternal obesity, maternal gestational diabetes, and also seems to happen more often to preterm babies. But overall, the problem hasn't been well studied. In the setting of a recent infection, there's also a decent chance it's a consequence of the immune response (although it's usually from a gastroenteritis with things like adenovirus, not a UTI).These cases come to my clinic every now and then and most of the time it resolves. I usually do two things: repeat the ultrasound in a few months, and get a blood test (called a CMP) to look at the liver numbers.We don't know how this relates to long term risk for fatty liver, which has more significant health consequences. Some people have genetic causes for fatty liver, and it can start at a young age, but this is fairly rare, and not the cause of fatty liver in infants in most cases. Either way, it's worth keeping tabs on it to see if it goes away over time.
11 month old with fatty liver11 month Male Multivitamin with iron 6 weeks premature Uncircumcised 29 inches 24.5 lbsOn March 30 he woke up with a fever. We headed to urgent care and they diagnosed him with UTI. Got a call from them a week later saying to follow up with his pediatrician. While there she said his bacteria numbers werent high enough to indicate a UTI but its possible we just caught it super early. She said she was going to do research and possibly want further testing. She ended ordering a renal ultrasound. The findings of the ultrasound indicated that his renal system is unremarkable! But his liver is showing echogenicity and fatty infiltration of the liver. What could cause this? Should I be worried about it?