My 4.5 months old baby diagnosed for acute ITP

Urgently need advises & help. I spotted purple dots on his legs & sent him to see doctor. My little baby was then diagnosed for acute ITP on 29 February & on that day itself was admitted into hospital after his blood test shown platelet count reading was only 7. Given ivig (intravenous immunoglobulin) for four bottles in a day.
The next day, he was discharged on 1st march as platelet count shown a raise from 7 to 50. But again, was asked to go back to hospital on 2nd march. Happily the reading shown a further raise from 50 to 109 on 2nd march.
Every week, the doctor asked him to go for blood test, following week was on 9th march, his platelet reading started to go down from 109 to 107.
A week after on 16 march, dropped even further from 107 to 40. Showing a bad sign, doctor asked us to go back again on 20th march, dropped further from 40 to only 27 now. Every visit to the hospital, the doctor has done nothing, no medication to be prescribed. I feel so helpless. I'm still breastfeeding. Any advice or something I can eat to increase platelet that can pass to him through my breast milk?.
As doctor said seeing his cycle showing a drop & not increasing, he advised me to take bone marrow examination on my little baby next week to see any underlying disease.
Please help. I cannot bear to see my baby suffering further.

Hi

It must be very worrying to have such a young child with this disorder.

IVIG itself won't cure your baby - its a temporary fix while his body hopefully resets itself. As you've seen in the last week or so, your baby's counts will drop again. The good news is that for most children, especially very young ones, ITP is a very short lived problem, so hopefully your little man will recover soon.

Its worth making sure that your doctor is experienced and knowledgeable about ITP - the ones who aren't tend to panic and then they investigate and treat unnecessarily. Treatments are sometimes horrible, so good doctors try to hold off treatment - treating symptoms rather than platelet counts is a good thing. I don't think there would be anything much you could do via breastmilk, but keep going with it because its good for your baby anyway.

Try not to worry too much - ITP normally just goes away by itself and even if it doesn't its not normally a huge problem. Good luck, let us know how things go.

Ali

I know you must be so scared for your baby. My son was recently diagnosed with ITP (Jan 2012). They've done two treatments of ivig, and he is getting his third tomorrow. Our hematologists tell us over and over again that the up and down (platelet counts) is typical of this disease. And that it can continue to do so for 6 months (if its acute)or longer.

I'm definitely no expert on the subject, but there are many people on here that are very knowledgable. Keep us updated on your lil one.

Today went for another blood test, result shown a slight increase from 27 to 50. And so, my little baby dint have to do bone marrow examination today. Hope that it will continue to increase next week & forever.
Next week again, will be going to hospital.

Awesome news!!! Congrats:)

My friends advised me to go for 2nd opinion eg. Go to other hospital to make sure it's 100% acute ITP & not treating the wrong disease. Do u think I should? As every time every week, I visited the same doctor & she did not prescribed anything but to just continuing blood test. My son's platelet already low but keep on poking his little fingers every week knowing it's going to bleed for a while

Disclaimer - I'm not expert

I will say that I'm not surprised the doctor isn't prescribing anything. Any treatments would be like a band aide, just to get your baby's platelets in a safe range. Many doctors choose the "wait and watch" approach if there aren't any bleeding symptoms.

Jcqlyn - they can usually tell it's ITP just by looking at the CBC. If there are no other problems showing up on his blood work, chances are, he has ITP. ITP can sometimes be caused by infections or vaccines. It usually goes away in time.

"Watch and wait" is a very common thing with very young children. They seem to be monitoring him well and that is a good thing.

Please know that your baby isn't suffering. ITP does not cause pain. The worst part is the blood draws, but he won't remember those when he gets older.