At my son's first year check up, his blood work came back with a high WBC. We waited a few weeks and redid it and now it has come down from what it was but it's still higher than normal. They are wanting to just monitor him for now. I have no idea what this can mean. Are their any health professionals who can help me understand why his WBC could be high. Is there something we should be asking his Pedi? As some background, he has been quite a sick baby. We are either at the doctor's or the ER almost weekly. His Pedi's office knows us by name now. He seems to catch everything and anything.
A high WBC means infection somewhere.
If he's been sick a lot, then it's good to know his white blood cells are working on it.
That the WBC is coming down means he's fighting it off and winning.
Our son came down with a lot his first 2 years and then things seemed to settle down a lot to only one or two colds per year.
Your WBC will rise when you are sick. They are the fighter cells, attacking bacteria and foreign cells and trying to get you back to normal. If your son is sick a lot, then his WBC would be high as an immune response to the frequent illnesses. That being said, a high white count without illness can be cause for concern, so you want your pedi to keep monitoring it. If it doesn't normalize, ask for a referral to a pediatric hematologist.
My daughters's was low so the doc referred us to a hematologist. Too low can indicate leukemia but too high just means they are fighting an infection. I didn't think that was anything to be concerned about.
It LITERALLY "just" means that his immune system was in high gear. Aka he was sick. And then almost better OR starting to get sick again.
What usually kicks an immune system into high gear?
The common cold.
Or any other kind of infection.
Including pseudo infections (when the body thinks its infected, but the microbes are actually dead)... Aka immunizations.
Since it was 2 weeks later... And they were still elevated... He had a "real" infection. Probably a cold, maybe an ear infection, or bronchitis, or other lingering infection, but probably just a 10 day minor cold.
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There are rare disorders that come along with increased immune response (Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis for example)... But if your little one is in daycare... Then expect to be sick 1 week out of every month, or 1 week well and 1 week sick.
Sick all the time WITH an elevated white count is actually a good thing. If he were sick all the time and had a low WBC count I'd be worried.
Has he had a series of illnesses, colds, flu, bronchitis, etc.? Has he been on any antibiotics for anything but perhaps didn't finish the regimen? (Sometimes that happens if kids are sick and throw up their meds.) WBC, as others have said, is the sign of the body trying to fight infection, so by itself and in the absence of other factors, it's not a horrible thing. Except that it means he's not quite able to fully fight things off. I work with people (adults and kids) to strengthen the immune system, and it's pretty simple to work on that in a non-pharmaceutical way. If you want some help in that regard, let me know. If he's been sick a lot (even low grade stuff), then maybe you want to look at some options.
Meantime, the WBC seems to be coming back, albeit slowly. Usually the big worry is if the count is absurdly off from normal, which is not the case here.
Well if he is sick a lot, that is why. How high is it. High normal or really high. Doc will monitor. If he was really worried, he would have had him seen by hematologist. Don't worry until you have something to worry about. You miss out on too much when worrying.
