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What Does Low WBC Count In An Infant Indicate?
Question: Hello I took my 9 month old in for a physical & his pedi does a CBC on all the babies at this time..after getting it back his WbC count was very low at 200 so she wanted to refer us to a hemo..while waiting the three days to get into him & a couple days after doing the original CbC (this is before we went to hemo) him and I came down with a tummy bug ..we just visited the hemo yesterday and he seems to think the drop in wbc is due to the virus he had because he is a otherwise very healthy baby and from his physical check nothing was wrong..he did another cbc on him while we were there and his wbc has risen to a normal level...he wants us back 1 time a week for 3 weeks to check the wbc to make sure it's not going up and down & that would mean neutropenia? My question is...how likely is it that this is what my child has? There is nobody in our families that has this or any kind of autoimmune disease & he has never been sick besides minor conjunctivitis in his eyes which we had to have unblocked! Thank you!
Brief Answer:
Possibility of congenital cause of low WBC & neutrophil is low.
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thanks for posting your query on HealthcareMagic.
A fall in white blood cell (WBC) count can occur in number of conditions which cause bone marrow depression, replacement of bone marrow, decreased production of normal hematopoietic tissue.
Viral infection is a very common cause of fall in WBC and platelets.
In viral infection, the fall is temporary and the counts return to their normal range within a week in most of the conditions.
This is probably what has happened in your child and your doctor is also clinically suspecting the same.
A repeat WBC count after a regular interval would be helpful in ruling out other causes of low WBCs.
There is low possibility of congenital conditions which cause low WBC and low neutrophil count because there conditions are present since birth and manifest soon after birth with features of frequent infections.
A repeat WBC count will rule out other causes of low WBC count so I suggest you to go ahead.
No family history of similar problem again rules out possibility of congenital problems.
Thanks and take care
Dr Shailja Puri
Possibility of congenital cause of low WBC & neutrophil is low.
Detailed Answer:
Hello,
Thanks for posting your query on HealthcareMagic.
A fall in white blood cell (WBC) count can occur in number of conditions which cause bone marrow depression, replacement of bone marrow, decreased production of normal hematopoietic tissue.
Viral infection is a very common cause of fall in WBC and platelets.
In viral infection, the fall is temporary and the counts return to their normal range within a week in most of the conditions.
This is probably what has happened in your child and your doctor is also clinically suspecting the same.
A repeat WBC count after a regular interval would be helpful in ruling out other causes of low WBCs.
There is low possibility of congenital conditions which cause low WBC and low neutrophil count because there conditions are present since birth and manifest soon after birth with features of frequent infections.
A repeat WBC count will rule out other causes of low WBC count so I suggest you to go ahead.
No family history of similar problem again rules out possibility of congenital problems.
Thanks and take care
Dr Shailja Puri
Note: Do you have more questions on diagnosis or treatment of blood disorders? Ask An Expert/ Specialist Now
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Neel Kudchadkar
Answered by
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