My son got meningitis at birth. Can occupational therapy help him achieve normal activities?

Question

Hi doctor,

My 1.5-year-old son got meningitis at the time of birth. After 21 days of taking antibiotics, he got recovered. Now, he is not able to stand and speak. We did an MRI. It shows an impression of cystic encephalomalacia changes and gliosis in bilateral frontal white matter on right. There is a paucity of white matter with thinning of corpus callosum due to chronic sequelae including HIE. My pediatrician told me that he will get recovered by doing occupational therapy but pediatric orthopedist told me that he is a special child.

Kindly suggest.

Answer 1

Hi,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

Your son got meningitis at birth. His MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) findings show brain damage caused due to infection. There is a rare chance for your son to be a normal child. With physiotherapy, he can try to achieve normal activities. Your son will have a developmental delay but he can be able to achieve milestones and he cannot be able to cope with his equal-aged children. Continue giving physiotherapy and give him a chance to have improvement as the brain is still growing. So let him try to achieve as much as he can.