3 year old diagnosed with ITP

Hi all, Im wondering if anybody has had any experience with ITP in there child?

My son is 3 years old and was rushed into hospital 5 weeks ago with suspected menigitis due to pin prick bruising all over his body. After blood tests this was ruled out but his platelet count has come back at 3,000. He was kept in for a few days and re-tested but they had only risen to 7 then 12 and then back down to 4. We seen a specialist last week who prescribed a steroid and a blood clotting tablet. After almost 2 weeks on the meds his levels were still at 4,000 so they decided to give him a higher dose. This week his levels were at 18,000 and we go back tomorrow for another blood test. We have been told not to let my son eat or drink as if his levels are no better that they are going to do a bone marrow respirate.

All abit worrying really as he hasn't been well for over 12 months with bad viruses and skin infections.

Hopefully your stories will help me to understand a little more as at the moment i am your typical worried mum.

Thank You

My 3 year old daughter was diagnosed n February of this year. I noticed that shewas gettinga lot of bruises that would not go away and I had no idea how she got them. I made a doctors appointment and her doctor told me it could be a few different things, one being ITP. He rushed her to the hospital and had a CBC done and her platelet count came back at 4,000. Since then she has not had a count of over 10,000 as of yet. No medications have worked as of yet. She is in a drug trial study right now and has been for about 10 weeks and so far it has not worked. She is on the max dose so I do not believe that it is going to work. We were told from the begining that it would probably just go away one day butthen as time went on that changed and now she has chronic ITP. I sure hope your sons platelet counts keep going up!!!

Thank You so much, Sorry to hear that your child isn't having much luck with it.

Did they do a bone marrow test on your child? I think this is why i keep worrying so much. xx

Yes they did. I worried so much about her getting it done but she did so good with it. Her bone marrow came back great. No worries there.

well that has put my mind at ease a little, they said if they seem ok they will not do it & to be honest he looks abit perkier and his bruising has faded so im hoping we will get good levels tomorrow. He looks chubby like because of the steroids. Xx

The key thing is for platelets to increase and increase from 3 to 18 in around 5 weeks is a good sign. I was advised most children recover fully in 6 months time, although most get safer levels > 50 in 2 to 3 months.

My 5 year old was dx in January of this year with ITP. We weren't one of the lucky ones to recover in less than 6 months. That being said, he hasn't needed IVIG since July and has been holding steady in the 30,000's (until this month reaching the 60's!).

One of the many things I've learned during all of this is no case is the same. I would compare stories all the time to see if there were any clues to Ryan becoming chronic or it being acute, etc etc. I was driving myself crazy over it (okay, not literally, but I was googling way too much)

This site definitely helped me. No one around me even knew that ITP was such a thing, and definitely didn't understand the roller coaster that comes along with it. I think you'll also find this forum to be very helpful, and even comforting.