Meningitis without fever

In babies and toddlers it sometimes happens that a developing meningitis presents itself without fever, which makes early diagnosis in this case very difficult. In adolescents and adults, cases have also been described in which there was no increase in body temperature during the course of the disease, but this is only very rarely the case. The reasons for this are not yet known.

Symptoms in babies and toddlers

The symptoms mentioned in the introduction apply mainly to older children and adults. Unfortunately, the symptoms are not as clear-cut in infants. Especially the disease-specific neck stiffness is mostly missing.

Babies are more likely to stand out due to unspecific symptoms such as increased tiredness and listlessness, a weakness in drinking, fever and irritability. The irritability and the feeling of being unwell is usually expressed by more frequent and above all shrill crying. The children appear tired and limp.

They often also react more sensitively to touch. Sometimes vomiting occurs, with nausea and vomiting occurring much less frequently than in older children. Meningitis in children is therefore much more difficult to detect than meningitis in adults.

In addition, babies and toddlers may have more frequent seizures due to illness than older children. In addition, a bulging fontanel is also frequently seen in the further course of the disease. The fontanel is the part of the skull that is not yet ossified.

Especially the initial signs of the disease are not easy to recognize and thus also occur in other diseases. In case of doubt, a doctor should always be consulted, because the earlier the disease is treated, the better. With babies and also with small children a normally rather harmless viral caused meningitis, can take a stronger course, since their immune system is not yet so mature in contrast to that of older children. Older children have already come into contact with many pathogens, so that their immune system can quickly fend off these pathogens without the disease breaking out. This is not yet the case with small children.