Kth Smallest Element in a BST

Given a binary search tree, write a function kthSmallest to find the kth smallest element in it.

Note: 
You may assume k is always valid, 1 ≤ k ≤ BST's total elements.

Follow up:

What if the BST is modified (insert/delete operations) often and you need to find the kth smallest frequently? How would you optimize the kthSmallest routine?

/**
 * Definition for a binary tree node.
 * struct TreeNode {
 *     int val;
 *     TreeNode *left;
 *     TreeNode *right;
 *     TreeNode(int x) : val(x), left(NULL), right(NULL) {}
 * };
 */
class Solution {
public:
    void traverse(TreeNode* root, int k, int& i, int& val)
    {
    	if(root == NULL || i > k)
    	{
    		return;
    	}
    	traverse(root -> left, k, i, val);
    	++ i;
    	if(i == k)
    	{
    		val = root -> val;
    	}
    	traverse(root -> right, k, i, val);
    }
    int kthSmallest(TreeNode* root, int k)
    {
    	int i = 0;
    	int val = 0;
    	traverse(root, k, i, val);
    	return val;
    }
};

/**
 * Definition for a binary tree node.
 * struct TreeNode {
 *     int val;
 *     TreeNode *left;
 *     TreeNode *right;
 *     TreeNode(int x) : val(x), left(NULL), right(NULL) {}
 * };
 */
class Solution {
public:
    void findK(TreeNode* root, int k, int& N, int& num)
    {
    	if(root == NULL)
    	{
    		return;
    	}

   		findK(root -> left, k, N, num);
   		if(N >= k)
   		{
   			return;
   		}
   		++N;
   		if(N == k)
   		{
   			num = root -> val;
   			return;
   		}
   		findK(root -> right, k, N, num);
   		if(N >= k)
   		{
   			//num = root -> val;
   			return;
   		}
    	
    }
    int kthSmallest(TreeNode* root, int k) {
        int num = 0;
        int N = 0;
        findK(root, k, N, num);
        return num;
    }
};