Other advice
You may have already seen a health professional about your child but it is important to seek further advice if:
- You feel that your child is worse than when you previously sought advice
- You are more worried about your chid than when you previously sought advice
- You are concerned that you are unable to look after your child
Meningitis and septicaemia (sepsis) are unusual in children. But if you do have concerns and your child’s health is not improving as quickly as you would expect or seems to be getting worse, even if their temperature falls, act swiftly.
Other symptoms
When deciding whether a child is well enough to go home or needs to be in hospital, a health professional needs to take measurements such as heart rate, breathing rate, oxygen level and alertness. National UK guidelines outline what doctors should measure in children with fever or suspected infection and when they should refer children to hospital.
These guidelines are available below:
Fever in under 5s: Assessment and initial management
Meningitis (bacterial) and meningococcal septicaemia in under 16s: recognition, diagnosis and management
Sepsis: Recognition, diagnosis and early management
Our resources
We have a wide variety of pinted resource to help people spot the signs of meningitis.
Order our printed resources here.
Other resources
The following resources are available from other charities and organisations to help parents and guardians caring for sick children at home.