Low white blood cells in babies

[LittleChicken11]

I’m wondering if anybody has got any experience of this?

My baby boy has had consistent low white blood cells in repeated blood tests, and it’s gone down again on last test (last night). I don’t want to immediately think leukaemia but are there any other reasons which could cause this, or can it happen in newborns and resolve? He is 8weeks old on Monday.

I’m so worried for him.

hey is it his neutrophils? Do you know what the number is? I I’m 35 and have had a problem with my neutrophils my entire life. The only health condition I have is an overactive thyroid which is easily managed. I know it’s hard but try not to jump to the worst case scenario xx

Yes it’s his neutrophils. The number last ignored was 0.72 I think. That’s reassuring to hear it may not necessarily mean leukaemia, thank you. I’m glad you are doing well with yours.

How stressful for you. He's not had any antibiotics has he? When my DS was around the same age he was given intravenous antibiotics for a suspected infection and his neutrophils dropped to something like 0.2. They came back up after a week or so though.

After lots of tests it turned out he had hepatitis A so I guess it's possible that could have been the cause too. Either way he was totally fine a few weeks later and has been ever since.

He had iv antibiotics in his first week but that was 6 weeks ago. Nothing since though. Thanks for sharing your story, glad your little one is ok!

It could be autoimmune neutropenia which is more common in children. I'm an adult with it and was diagnosed when my neutrophils were 0.3
It's hard but try not to worry too much, it's not uncommon

Thanks @bonfirebash can I ask how it has affected you health wise? I’m really trying not to panic and think the worst, especially as his doctors aren’t very concerned yet but it is hard to not go down the word case rabbit hole.

Tricky as I gained it as an adult which is rare and more severe! Basically more prone to infections, I think it's usually grow out of it by 5 or so if you get it as a child

I'm sorry - you must be very worried. But to let you know that my son has naturally low WBC and neutrophils. In theory this makes him very vulnerable to infection but in reality he has never had any infections. He has a couple of blood tests a year to keep an eye on it. He's now 16.

It's quite a common "incidental" finding in small babies, either as a short-term thing, or else as part of a lifelong predisposition. Probably there are loads of these babies happily out there who are neve detected because never tested. Even though the number measures low there may not be any actual functional impairment to the immune system doing its job. In general children with a more serious cause are unwell in either ways or having recurrent / severe infections.

Hi, sorry you are going through this, I remember it well.

My DS2 also had low neutrophils as a baby. He’d had low dose antibiotics from birth to 6 months for an unrelated condition, and extremely low neutrophils spotted in a blood test around 6 weeks. We were told it may have been due to the antibiotics and he was closely monitored. After the antibiotics stopped but the low neutrophils continued and he was diagnosed with autoimmune neutropenia. Regular blood tests continued and the condition cleared around 3 1/2 years old. I was also told that the autoimmune version isn’t unusual in infancy and usually rights itself as the child’s immune system develops.

We were asked to be vigilant for bacterial infections and fungal infections, but he is now a happy healthy 7 year old who is never ill!

The worst part was the worry - and the regular blood tests, trying to catch a vein on a tiny baby was awful.

So please try not to worry too much, easier said than done I know!