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Medical Author:

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Dr. Charles "Pat" Davis, MD, PhD, is a board certified Emergency Medicine doctor who currently practices as a consultant and staff member for hospitals. He has a PhD in Microbiology (UT at Austin), and the MD (Univ. Texas Medical Branch, Galveston). He is a Clinical Professor (retired) in the Division of Emergency Medicine, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, and has been the Chief of Emergency Medicine at UT Medical Branch and at UTHSCSA with over 250 publications.

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Medical Editor:

David Perlstein, MD, MBA, FAAP

David Perlstein, MD, MBA, FAAP

Dr. Perlstein received his Medical Degree from the University of Cincinnati and then completed his internship and residency in pediatrics at The New York Hospital, Cornell medical Center in New York City. After serving an additional year as Chief Pediatric Resident, he worked as a private practitioner and then was appointed Director of Ambulatory Pediatrics at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx.

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Meningitis in Children Symptoms and Signs

In infants, the signs and symptoms of meningitis are not always obvious due to the infant's inability to communicate symptoms. Therefore, caregivers (parents, relatives, guardians) must pay very close attention to the infant's overall condition. The following is a list of possible symptoms seen in infants or children with bacterial meningitis (bacterial meningitis at any age is considered a medical emergency):

• Classic or common symptoms of meningitis in infants younger than 3 months of age may include some of the following:
• Decreased liquid intake
• Vomiting
• Rash
• Stiff neck
• Increased irritability
• Increased lethargy
• Fever
• Bulging fontanelle (soft spot on the top of the head)
• Seizure activity
• Classic symptoms in children older than 1 year of age are as follows:
• Nausea and vomiting
• Headache
• Increased sensitivity to light
• Fever
• Altered mental status (seems confused or odd)
• Lethargy
• Seizure activity
• Neck stiffness or neck pain
• Knees automatically brought up toward the body when the neck is bent forward or pain in the legs when bent (called Brudzinski sign)
• Inability to straighten the lower legs after the hips have already been flexed 90 degrees (called Kernig sign)
• Rash

Symptoms of viral meningitis most commonly resemble those of the flu (fever, muscle aches, cough, headache but some may have one or more of the symptoms listed above for bacterial meningitis), but the symptoms are usually considerably milder.