Symptoms and treatment of meningitis in children

Anyone can get meningitis, regardless of age. The most dangerous is this inflammatory disease for the child's body. With the late provision of qualified medical care, the baby may even die. Every parent should know the main clinical symptoms and manifestations of the disease. This will help protect the baby from dangerous complications and seek help in time.

Causes and provoking factors

There can be several causes of inflammation. The provoking factor causes damage to the soft membranes of the spinal cord and brain. This leads to the development of meningitis. Today, there are more than a hundred different possible causes of the disease.

The peak incidence is between 3 and 7 years of age.

The most common causes of the inflammatory process in the meninges are:

Viruses of various types. Rubella, measles and influenza infections, if complicated, can cause illness. In a number of others, the causative agent of smallpox is also noted. Viruses are quite small. This allows them to easily penetrate the blood-brain barrier, reaching the pia mater.
Pathogenic bacterial microorganisms. Most often, meningitis occurs as a consequence of a staphylococcal or streptococcal infection. Meningococcus types A, B, and C can also cause this dangerous disease. Pseudomonas aeruginosa provokes inflammation in the pia mater in 25% of children. Meningitis caused by bacterial flora is relatively difficult and requires mandatory monitoring by medical professionals.
Various fungi. Candida is the most common culprit. The spread of fungal infection occurs in babies with immune deficiencies. If a child has type 2 diabetes mellitus, then this can also be the cause of the development of candidiasis in the body.
Amoebiasis or toxoplasmosis infections. In this case, the disease is caused by protozoa. These forms of meningitis are relatively rare. The treatment requires the appointment of special drugs.
Meningitis due to other chronic diseases. In this case, with a weakening of immunity, the inflammatory process spreads throughout the child's body, also damaging the meninges.
In some babies, the disease can develop after traumatic / bolezni-rebenka / streptokokkovaya-infekciya / injuries the brain or spinal cord during birth injuries or after accidents and accidents.

A large number of scientific studies prove the comparative resistance of the child's body to pathogenic bacteria and viruses that can cause inflammation in the meninges.

However, some children are more at risk of developing meningitis than others.

Factors that increase the risk of the disease:

Prematurity. According to statistics, babies who were born prematurely or had a relatively low birth weight are more susceptible to this disease than their full-term peers.
Birth trauma. If traumatic brain damage occurs during the birth of a child, then this can also be the cause of the development of meningitis.
Infection with viral or bacterial infections during pregnancy from the mother. Rubella infection is especially dangerous. It perfectly penetrates the placental barrier and causes various disorders of the nervous system in the fetus, including meningitis.
Infection in infancy with various infectious diseases (especially in babies with congenital diseases of the nervous system).

Kinds

Given the huge variety of provoking reasons, it is customary to divide all meningitis according to certain criteria. For convenience and understanding of the essence of the process, doctors use special classifications.

Most of the most common types of infectious meningitis are:

Viral. Viruses, easily penetrating the child's body, can cause a strong inflammatory process in the pia mater after a few hours or days. Among the most common: rubella, influenza, enterovirus, poliomyelitis. Children living in endemic areas may develop encephalitis meningitis after a tick bite.
Bacterial. The most common form is staphylococcal. Staphylococcus becomes the culprit of the disease in this case. Getting into the child's body by airborne droplets, it quickly spreads through the blood and causes an inflammatory process in many organs. Weakened babies may also have tuberculous meningitis. Mycobacterium tuberculosis becomes the causative agent of the infection. Treatment of such forms of the disease requires finding a baby in a phthisiatric hospital.
In most cases, meningitis is caused by a meningococcal infection. In this case, the source of the disease is transmitted from a sick person to a healthy one. You can get sick from both an adult and a child. In some cases, with meningococcal infection, bacterial carriers may occur. A person who has a pathogenic microbe in his body is contagious. Also, children can become infected through the household transmission route, playing with toys in kindergarten or using shared utensils. The transmissible route is a rather rare means of transmission. In this case, infection occurs when a mosquito or tick bites.

Incubation period

The inflammatory process does not occur in the body from the first seconds of the disease. All meningitis is characterized by a different period when the first symptoms begin to appear. The time from the moment the provoking agent enters the body until the first clinical symptoms appear is called the incubation period.

The incubation period for infectious meningitis is usually 5-7 days.

With viral forms, this time can be reduced to 2-3 days. Very often babies become infected with airborne droplets. This is the most common route of transmission. Toddlers who attend preschool education are at greater risk of infection.

Even despite the various reasons that cause inflammation, after the incubation period, the baby develops characteristic specific signs of the disease. Recognizing meningitis at home is not an easy task. However, every mother must know the main clinical manifestations of the disease.

Symptoms and first signs

Determining the onset of meningitis is difficult. The disease often begins in a very non-specific manner. The first days of the illness pass under the guise of a classic cold. The baby may simply have a fever or feel unwell. However, with infectious forms of the disease, development occurs rapidly. Within a few hours, the main symptoms are increasing.

Most often, the inflammatory process in the meninges is manifested:

A sharp increase in body temperature. It grows rapidly in a few hours to 38-39.5 degrees. This symptom is quite persistent. Despite attempts to bring down the temperature with antipyretic drugs, it remains high for a long time.
Severe nausea. Against the background of severe headache, vomiting may even occur. These phenomena are not associated with meals. Vomiting can appear even on an empty stomach. Conventional medications for nausea do not work well. Babies feel very bad, refuse to eat, become capricious.
Severe headache. Has a bursting and spilled character. There is no characteristic epicenter of pain. The pain syndrome increases when the head is turned in different directions. In a horizontal position, the headache decreases somewhat. In some cases, when examining closely spaced objects, double vision or blurred vision may appear.
Positive meningeal signs. As a rule, these symptoms are detected by the doctor when examining a baby with suspected meningitis. The most common and reliable sign is the appearance and intensification of pain on the back of the neck while stretching the legs to the child's stomach.

A characteristic forced posture. The child lies on the bed with his head slightly thrown back. A sick baby tries to choose a position so that the head is slightly below the level of the body. This is a classic characteristic of meningitis. This condition is caused by a stiff neck muscle. This symptom is already quite unfavorable and indicates an increase in intracranial pressure.
Light dislike and increased headache when exposed to loud irritating sounds. As a rule, bright light irritates the retina and provokes an increase in pain. Being in a dark room brings relief to the baby. In the first days of illness, you should talk with your child as quietly as possible, avoiding loud annoying sounds. Acute perception of various provoking external factors can lead to a deterioration in the baby's condition.
The appearance of seizures and episyndrome in severe cases of the disease. Even babies who do not have epilepsy may develop this adverse symptom.
Coma or confusion. It also occurs in severe cases of the disease. This condition requires immediate hospitalization and treatment in the intensive care unit.
With meningococcal infection, one of the characteristic specific signs will be the appearance of a rash on the skin. The rash spreads quickly enough throughout the body, including the legs and feet, as well as the buttocks. The greatest number of elements is found on the lateral surfaces of the body. The appearance of a rash is an unfavorable symptom and requires immediate hospitalization in a hospital for intensive treatment.

Various manifestations of the disease may not appear in all babies.

To a greater extent, the development of symptoms is influenced by the individual characteristics of the child's body and susceptibility to infections. The most unfavorable course of the disease is for young babies and premature babies. Children under 5 years of age have a high risk of coma or even death.

Does the course of the disease differ in children of different ages?

The features of the course of the disease in babies in different age categories can differ significantly. This, to a large extent, depends on the initial physiological level of the child's development. In newborn babies, the disease may proceed in a completely different way than in schoolchildren. The most dangerous age period is up to 5 years.

Features of the disease in children aged 2 years

Such babies are characterized by pronounced symptoms of intoxication and fever. This is due to the age-related characteristics of thermoregulation. The body temperature rises to 39-39.5 degrees in a few hours. Babies become lethargic, refuse to feed. Vomiting is common during high fever or severe headache.

Features of the disease in children aged 3 - 4 years

At this time, as a rule, the child can already tell his mother what worries him. This allows parents to orient themselves much earlier and call a pediatrician. A baby at the age of 3 years with meningitis will be very moody, sleepy. Habitual games and favorite activities during illness do not bring the child satisfaction and joy. Babies of this age often have a lack of light and sound.

Diagnostics

In order to make a correct diagnosis of meningitis, it is not always enough to conduct only an examination by a doctor. Doctors, in order to prescribe effective treatment, resort to additional laboratory studies and tests. These methods not only make it possible to clarify which microbe caused the inflammation, but also to determine its sensitivity to various antibiotics.

One of the simplest and most affordable diagnostic methods is a general blood test. This laboratory test allows you to establish the viral or bacterial nature of the disease. The leukocyte formula helps the doctor navigate the stage of the inflammatory process in the body. Also, a blood test can tell about the stage at which the disease proceeds and whether the first signs of complications have already appeared.

For babies with meningitis, additional heart examinations are also performed in a hospital setting.

Electrocardiography is one of the most important methods for diagnosing cardiac complications. Infectious meningitis often causes dangerous arrhythmias or heart problems. The ECG allows doctors to navigate in time and cope with this emerging condition.

To exclude kidney complications, urine tests are performed in babies. In some cases, the causative agent of the disease can also be found in it. This simple, affordable test will allow doctors to dynamically monitor your baby's kidney health during an infection.

Serological tests for the determination of antibodies to various infections are carried out in difficult cases. They are most effective for the differential diagnosis of infectious diseases. With the help of such a study, toxoplasmosis or amebiasis can be detected. For this analysis, venous blood is taken. The result is ready, as a rule, in 1-2 days.

Treatment methods

Children with various forms of meningitis should be admitted to the hospital. Delay in the provision of treatment can lead to irreparable consequences and even death. Meningitis is a really serious and dangerous disease in pediatric emergency practice.

While in the hospital, a sick child undergoes a fairly large range of therapeutic procedures. So, diuretic drugs are used to reduce headaches and severe nausea. They also help prevent cerebral edema and impaired consciousness.

When signs of heart rhythm disturbances appear, doctors resort to prescribing special antiarrhythmic drugs.

Such medications can help fight life-threatening arrhythmias. When heart failure occurs, the appointment of cardiac glycosides is required.

A child with meningitis receives a fairly long course of treatment throughout the hospital stay. All drugs are administered intravenously, many even by drip. This allows for rapid absorption of substances into the bloodstream and accelerates recovery.

If meningitis is of an infectious nature, then in such cases they resort to antibiotic courses. The choice of the drug is carried out taking into account the characteristics of the pathogen for certain antibacterial drugs. Often used drugs of a wide spectrum of action, which are administered parenterally.

Hospital stay

According to clinical guidelines, all babies with a severe course of the disease should undergo inpatient treatment for meningitis. Babies with an inflammatory process of the meninges require round-the-clock supervision of medical personnel. The risk of developing life-threatening complications is too high.

Is home treatment possible?

In order to avoid complications, treatment should be carried out in a hospital setting. The presence of an intensive care unit is a prerequisite for all necessary therapy.

Consequences and possible complications

After treatment, in most cases, clinical recovery occurs. This means that the life-threatening consequences have been eliminated. However, not all children develop meningitis easily and without complications. One of the mildest manifestations that have arisen after an illness may be memory impairment. Babies' memory and attention deteriorate. Some children may complain of decreased concentration and memory ability.

If during the illness there are complications from the kidneys, then after the acute period subsides, a violation of the excretory function may occur.

In severe cases, this condition can even lead to the development of chronic renal failure. This complication is quite rare and requires observation of the baby by a nephrologist.

Quite often, babies under three years old have heart rhythm disturbances. In this case, for a long time in children, various types of arrhythmias are recorded on the ECG. Such cases require mandatory consultation with a cardiologist in order to draw up the correct tactics for monitoring the baby and prescribe special treatment.

Prevention

In order to protect your baby, remember that the maximum risk of infection among children is possible in crowded groups. During mass outbreaks of the disease in kindergarten, quarantine must be introduced. This is a forced measure to prevent massive infection of children. As a rule, the duration of quarantine depends on which pathogen was found. On average, this period is 2 weeks.

All children attending preschool educational institutions must have the necessary vaccinations for their age.

Given the possible viral variants of meningitis, babies must be vaccinated against rubella, chickenpox, polio and other dangerous childhood infections before entering kindergarten. Today, a vaccine against meningococcal infection is also used all over the world. Such immunobiological preparations are approved for use in babies from 6 months of age.

Meningitis should be identified as early as possible. Only timely treatment will help minimize the possible risk of developing life-threatening complications of the disease. Optimal and complex drug therapy will allow you to achieve a good result and help restore the child's body.