18 months old and questions about recovery from bacterial meningitis

[Malyahari]

18 months old son recovery from bacterial meningitis.

Last Tuesday my son who had had a normal cold but with a bad smelling nose run staying for a while, suddenly got high fever and became weak, vomited violently. It happened in the evening. During the night the fever was still high b, in the morning the fever was gone but he was weak and not interested in breastfeeding or eating anything.

I phoned a nurse to ask for advice and to my surprise she calmly advised me to go to the emergency at the hospital. Perhaps he's got a sinus infection she suggested.

We got there and thankfully we were first in the line. CRP was high so they gave antibiotics immediately and made an x-ray on his lungs. Nothing wrong with the them. The next day they did a lumbago puncture and bacterial meningitis, haemophilus-influenzae was discovered.

He's now on the path to recovery but very, very weak and irritable. Crying a lot. He's getting 8 ml of antibiotics 3 times daily intravenously. Altogether 10 days he should have it. We're now on day 4-5 about.

I would be so grateful to hear of others how long it took for their child or some child in similar age to recover. And how the path went. I also wonder how I can help him recover better.

And how to help his gut flora to heal after such massive antibiotic treatment.

Grateful to hear both happy and less happy experiences so that I'll have some ideas of what to expect. It's so rare here in Sweden that the doctors have very little personal experience and very little knowledge or experience at all.

Thank you so much!

[menchild]

I got bacterial meningitis 3 months ago. I was very weak for first month just needed to rest and sleep a lot. Antibiotics made me feel sick and I had no appetite for food for a few weeks and was very nauseous. I get headaches everyday but getting less intense. I take probiotics and vit c everyday. I also got craniosacral massage once a week for 3 weeks after I finished antibiotics and babies can have that. Dont expect your baby to bounce back quickly. It is a very serious illness and takes time. Dont worry too much if he doesnt get better fast - mostly it takes a while to recover. He is lucky to be alive with no serious problems.

[euagelia]

Hello, my daughter at her 40 days old had bacterial menengitis. After killing the bacteria with sttong antibiotics in her blood (meropemen) she had serious problems with swalloing because her esophagus was dameged from the acids returning from the stomach as the stomach was also damged by meropemen. She then had therapy for that by a children gastrenterologist. She also had eyes and hearing tested and mri. Thank God now she is a happy energetic and smart almost four year old girl. I hope the same for your boy. If a clear fluid was running from hos nose then perhaps this was spinal fluid? If so your son should be checked for this and have a surgery so that bacteria stop entering to his spinal fluid from the nose road.