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Is your baby getting worse fast? Babies can get ill very quickly, so check often.

* Tense or bulging soft spot
* High Temperature
* Very sleepy/staring expression/too sleepy to wake up
* Vomiting/refusing to feed
* Irritable when picked up, with a high pitch or moaning cry
* Breathing fast / difficulty breathing
* Blotchy skin, getting paler or turning blue
* Extreme shivering
* A stiff body with jerky movements, or else floppy / lifeless
* 'Pin prick' rash / marks or purple bruises on the body
* Cold hands and feet
* Sometimes diarrhoea
* Pain/ irritability from muscle aches or severe limb/joint pain


Not every baby gets all these symptoms. Symptoms can appear in any order.

What is the risk to my baby?

Most babies have natural resistance to these diseases. Meningitis vaccines give excellent protection but can't prevent all forms of meningitis and septicaemia.

What should I look out for?

Early symptoms of meningitis and septicaemia (the blood poisoning form of the disease) can be like other childhood illnesses, but a baby will usually get ill quickly and get worse fast.
Septicaemic rash

Watch out for tiny red or brown pin prick marks which can change into purple blotches or blood blisters. If your baby gets a rash, do the Tumbler Test (see below)