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Question:

My son had bacterial meningitis caused by my undiagnosed group b step, he was only 12 hours old and still in hospital when I noticed something wasn't right he was very ill and was in hospital for over a month. Luckily he made a full recovery. He is now nearly 8 years old. My question is... he is finding it very difficult at school his concentration is poor and finds writing difficult he has seen a clinical psychologist and she suggested he had ADHD and dyslexia along with poor executive funtion, is this common in children who have had bacterial meningitis and if so what can we do to help him. Thank you.

Answer:

Dr Saul Faust says:

Supporting children who have had meningitis at an early age with additional help in school or to help with behaviour problems can be an extremely important. The type of concentration and behaviour problems you describe are common following meningitis, unfortunately even when on the face of it children have made a full recovery at the time. We know from a very large study of all the infants under 1 year of age who were diagnoses with meningitis in England and Wales between 1985 and 1987 that these problems are more common still in children who have had meningitis in the first month of life. The same team have recently looked at the same group of children again and found that many of these children had problems with GCSEs compared to children who had not had meningitis, and these problems were also detected in children who had previously been thought to have recovered completely.

By knowing this information, we are now able to advise and help parents to keep a lookout for problems to be able to seek educational or other forms of support as soon as possible. Many parents armed with this new information have found it extremely useful to achieve local support to make sure all children who have had meningitis are helped to reach their full potential. Your GP or local paediatrician should be able to provide any medical reports needed when required.

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