Meningitis: symptoms, definition, home care, treatment, and preventionSymptoms
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Fever (38°C or higher for babies under 3 months old, 38.5°C and higher for children over 3 months old)
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Extreme irritability or drowsiness
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Very bad headache
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Stiff neck (child avoids moving their neck)
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Sensitivity to bright lights
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Vomiting
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Small red or purplish spots on the skin that don’t blanch when pressed, or blue patches mainly on the limbs
- Seizures
Take your child to the emergency room if they have symptoms of meningitis.
In babies, signs of meningitis may be mild. Sometimes, a fever, refusal to drink, or generalized weakness are the only clues. The fontanelle on the top of their head may bulge out, especially in infected babies between 3 and 12 months of age. However, you shouldn’t wait for this sign before consulting a doctor.
What is meningitis?
Meningitis is an inflammation of the meninges, which are the membranes that cover the central nervous system, including the brain and spinal cord. There are different types of meningitis, depending on the infection that causes it.
Viral meningitis
This type of meningitis is caused by a virus (e.g., herpes simplex, enterovirus, parechovirus).
Meningitis caused by an enterovirus usually occurs in late summer and early autumn, and often begins with an upper respiratory tract infection. Its symptoms mimic those of a common cold (fever, dry cough, runny nose) or flu (fatigue, muscle aches, fever).
This type of meningitis is relatively benign and almost never has after-effects. However, it can cause convulsions and severe apnea (pauses in breathing) in babies.
Herpes viral meningitis, on the other hand, can be severe and must be treated urgently, especially in babies. This type of meningitis is caused by the virus that causes cold sores.
Bacterial meningitis
This type of meningitis is caused by bacteria. A child with bacterial meningitis will become ill very quickly.
Bacterial meningitis has become rarer nowadays thanks to vaccination against Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), pneumococcal, and meningococcal group C infection. Group B streptococcus is the bacterium most often associated with meningitis in babies under 8 weeks. After this age, meningococcus and pneumococcus are more often the cause.
Bacterial meningitis can lead to serious complications, including permanent damage to the brain and other organs. In less than 5% of cases, bacterial meningitis can be fatal.
The most frequent complication is hearing loss, which can vary in severity. Hearing loss affects one in four children with bacterial meningitis. All children who have had bacterial meningitis should have their hearing tested, even if everything seems normal.
Other serious potential complications include epilepsy, intellectual disability, limb paralysis, learning or behavioural disorders, and attention deficit disorder.
Complications can arise quickly, even with proper treatment. For this reason, consult a doctor as soon as your child shows signs of meningitis.
How can you tell what type of meningitis it is?
Only a doctor can confirm whether meningitis is caused by a viral or bacterial infection. They do this by performing a thorough examination and running diagnostic tests, including a lumbar puncture. This can often help them distinguish between viral and bacterial meningitis.
The initial results of a lumbar puncture don’t always confirm the type of meningitis on their own. Usually, children with meningitis are hospitalized until bacterial meningitis has been ruled out.
Age: Meningitis can occur at any age, but is most common in children under 5—particularly babies under 12 months—and in adolescents and young adults. How it spreads: Meningitis spreads through the airborne droplets released when an infected person sneezes, coughs, or spits while talking. It’s also transmitted through direct or indirect contact with the saliva or secretions of an infected person (hands, toys, contaminated kitchen utensils, glasses, water bottles, etc.). Meningitis can also be passed from mother to newborn during childbirth. Infectious period – viral meningitis: As long as there are secretions in the airways. Infectious period – bacterial meningitis: Up to 24 hours after starting antibiotics. Isolation period – viral meningitis: Once a child with viral meningitis feels well enough and is no longer contagious, they can return to daycare or school. Isolation period – bacterial meningitis: A child with bacterial meningitis must remain hospitalized for the duration of the intravenous antibiotic treatment. Once they are discharged from the hospital, they can return to daycare or school as soon as they feel well enough. Vaccines: The routine vaccination schedule includes immunization against the main bacteria that can cause meningitis. See the prevention section for more information. |
Treatment – viral meningitis
If your doctor is unable to pinpoint the type of meningitis your child has, they will immediately prescribe intravenous broad-spectrum antibiotics while awaiting more targeted lab test results. These antibiotics are effective against a wide range of bacteria.
Your child can be discharged from hospital if their general condition is good, they aren’t vomiting, and their tests have ruled out bacterial meningitis. Once they’re back home, they can quickly resume their usual activities; no medical follow-up is needed.
Care and practical advice
- Encourage quiet activities. Your child doesn’t have to stay in bed all day, but they do need to rest.
- Give your child plenty of fluids (e.g., water, milk, soup).
- If your child has a poor appetite, give them smaller portions five or six times a day (e.g., cheese, Greek yogurt, eggs, oatmeal, apple sauce, or nuts if your child can eat them).
- To relieve pain and fever, give them acetaminophen (e.g., Tylenol® or Tempra®) or ibuprofen (e.g., Advil®, Motrin®) as indicated and in the doses recommended for your child’s weight. Don’t give ibuprofen to babies under 6 months, and never give acetylsalicylic acid (ASA, such as Aspirin®) to children or teens.
Treatment – bacterial meningitis
Even if your child has had meningitis before, they are not immune to the disease.
Children with bacterial meningitis must be hospitalized. Bacterial meningitis requires treatment with intravenous antibiotics as soon as possible to prevent complications. Antibiotics are administered for 7 to 21 days, depending on the type of bacteria involved. Some complications may require longer treatment.
Prevention
Vaccination
Quebec’s vaccination schedule includes protection against the main bacteria that cause meningitis—Haemophilus influenzae type b [Hib], pneumococcus, and meningococcus—administered from the age of 2 months. These vaccines have significantly reduced the number of cases of bacterial meningitis. Some children who are at higher risk of contracting meningitis, such as children with a compromised immune system or who don’t have a spleen, may receive additional vaccines.
Talk to your child’s doctor to make sure they receive all these vaccines on schedule. However, because these vaccines do not target all strains of meningitis-causing bacteria, your child cannot be 100% protected against meningitis.
There is no specific vaccine for viral meningitis, but the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) and chickenpox vaccines offer some protection against viral meningitis, which is a possible complication of these infections.
Basic hygiene
These basic hygiene measures can help prevent infections in general:
- Wash your hands with soap after coming into contact with an infected person or after touching an object that they handled.
- Wash your child’s hands often, and show them how to wash their own hands as early as possible, especially after they cough, sneeze, or blow their nose.
- Teach your child to cough or sneeze into a tissue or, if they don’t have one, into the crook of their elbow.
- Wipe down taps and door handles thoroughly, preferably with an alcohol-based cleaner. Do the same with toys. For more information, read our fact sheet on cleaning and disinfecting toys (available in French only).
| Scientific review: Dr. Isabelle Viel-Thériault, pediatrician and infectious disease specialist at CHU de Québec – Université Laval. Research and copywriting:The Naître et grandir team Updated: February 2025
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Photo: BSIP/MENDIL
Resources and references
Note: The links to other websites are not updated regularly, and some URLs may have changed since publication. If a link is no longer valid, please use search engines to find the relevant information.
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SickKids Staff. “Meningitis.” 2024. AboutKidsHealth. aboutkidshealth.ca
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Doré, Nicole, and Danielle Le Hénaff. From Tiny Tot to Toddler: A practical guide for parents from pregnancy to age two. Quebec City, Institut national de santé publique du Québec. inspq.qc.ca
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Gouvernement du Québec. “Quebec Immunization Program.” 2024. quebec.ca
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Nemours KidsHealth. “Meningitis in Kids.” KidsHealth. 2023. kidshealth.org
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Kim, Kwang Sik. “Acute bacterial meningitis in infants and children.” The Lancet Infectious Diseases, vol. 10, no. 1, 2010, pp. 32–42. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
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Mayo Clinic. “Meningitis.” Mayo Clinic. 2024. mayoclinic.org
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Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux. “Protocole d’immunisation du Québec (PIQ).” 2024. mfa.gouv.qc.ca
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World Health Organization. “Meningitis.” 2025. who.int
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Ouchenir, Lynda, et al. “The epidemiology, management, and outcomes of bacterial meningitis in infants.” Pediatrics, vol. 140, no. 1, 2017. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
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Canadian Paediatric Society. “Meningococcal disease.” Caring for Kids. 2020. caringforkids.cps.ca
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Canadian Paediatric Society. “Position statement: Guidelines for the management of suspected and confirmed bacterial meningitis in Canadian children older than 2 months of age.” 2021. cps.ca
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Tomatis Souverbielle, Cristina, et al. “Update on nonpolio enterovirus and parechovirus infections in neonates and young infants.” Current Opinion in Pediatrics, vol. 35, no. 3, 2023, pp. 380–389. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
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