Elevated eosinophils in children in the blood cause parents to experience natural anxiety. And not only because of concern about the state of health of their baby, but also as a result of worries about their own health, because often this phenomenon is hereditary. But before taking any measures to normalize the level of eosinophils, you should understand what they generally are and for what reasons their amount can change in the blood.
Eosinophils: the norm in a child
These cells that form in the bone marrow are a type of white blood cell. With blood flow, eosinophils enter the gastrointestinal tract, lungs, capillaries of the skin integument, where they perform their main functions: phagocytic, antihistamine, antitoxic. In the body, their main purpose is the absorption and dissolution of foreign proteins.
The quantitative level of these cells in the blood varies depending on the age of the child. So, in a newly born baby, eosinophils can make up to eight percent of the total number of leukocytes, in children under 13 years of age they should have no more than seven percent, and in children over 13 years old - no more than five percent. Worry if the performance is high. Eosinophils in a child in the blood in an increased amount are called eosinophilia. It is detected using a general blood test.
Elevated eosinophils in children: causes
Moderate growth in the blood of these cells (when they do not exceed 15 percent of the total number of leukocytes) usually indicates reactive eosinophilia, which serves as the body’s response to an allergen, which is often medication or milk (cow). If elevated eosinophils are detected in children who have just been born, it can be assumed that the bone marrow intensively produced cells as a result of the presence of intrauterine infection. In this case, they talk about the hereditary nature of eosinophilia.
Elevated eosinophils in older children may indicate fungal infections, skin diseases, helminthic invasion. When their proportion of the total number of leukocytes exceeds 20 percent, a hypereosinophilic syndrome is diagnosed, stating the fact that the lungs, brain, and heart are affected.
If hygiene rules are not observed in conditions of high humidity and parasites become infected in the heat, there is a chance of developing a tropical eosinophilia syndrome, the signs of which are shortness of breath, asthmatic cough, and the presence of
eosinophilic infiltrates in the
lungs . Sometimes an increase in the number of eosinophils in the blood can accompany blood diseases (myelogenous leukemia, lymphoma), the development of malignant tumors, vasculitis. Penetration of staphylococci into the children's body, lack of magnesium ions can also lead to cell growth.
Treatment
Reactive eosinophilia does not need treatment - the number of cells will decrease gradually by itself as the disease causing this condition is cured. In the case of diagnosing hypereosinophilic syndrome or hereditary eosinophilia, medications that inhibit the production of this type of white blood cells can be prescribed.