WHERE AM I LOCATED?

This is me! You have two kidneys. I am just the left one. If you look to the opposite side of me, you can see your right kidney!

Your right kidney and I are on either side of your spine. We are below your ribs and belly? Do you see us?!

In size, we are around 4-5 inches long. That's the size of a large fist!

WHAT DO WE DO?

Us kidneys have quite a few jobs.

FILTERING BLOOD

In order to filter your blood, we get rid of the waste products in it. Some of these wastes are salt and water. If we don't remove these wastes, they could stay in your body and make a hard rock that will stay in your body and harm you!

CONTROLLING FLUIDS

The human body needs to have a balance of water and salt. Too much water in the body is dangerous. Thankfully, us kidneys help control the amount of water in your body! We leave some water in your blood, and use the rest as waste in your urine.

MAKE HORMONES

Kidneys make hormones that do important things to your body. The hormones we make can help control blood pressure, make red blood cells and help your bones stay strong.

OUR PROCESS

First, your blood flows into us through a little tube called a renal artery.

Then, we filter the wastes from your blood.

After filtering, the clean blood goes back to your heart through another little tube called a renal vein.

The waste that we filtered out of your blood in step 2 gets turned into urine (aka pee).

This process repeats as blood is constantly flowing into us.

In order to filter your blood, about 1 million little filters called nephrons inside us kidneys work together! Yes, I said 1 MILLION!

Each nephron takes out wastes from a small amount of blood. It also prevents blood cells and proteins in the blood from passing into the urine. Instead, the blood cells and proteins go back into your blood.

NEPHRONS