Most of the leukemias in children are acute leukemias. Early symptoms are not obvious and easy to be overlooked, so they are usually detected during the onset of the disease.
Parents should be alert to the following symptoms.
1. Anemia: Anemia is often the first manifestation of the disease, with progressive development, and half of the patients are already moderately to severely anemic when they visit the doctor. Children may appear pale, weak, fatigue, dizziness, loss of appetite and so on.
2. Fever: half of the patients have fever as the early manifestation. The fever may be low or as high as 39-40℃ or more. Fever is mainly caused by leukemia itself, which is ineffective to be treated with antibiotics and relieved within 72 hours of induction therapy; secondly, it is caused by infection.
3. Bleeding: 40% of acute leukemia cases have bleeding as early manifestation, with skin petechiae, ecchymosis, nosebleed and so on.
4. Joint and bone lesions: after the lesions infiltrate bones and joints, pain in bones and joints often occurs.
In addition, children with leukemia may also have symptoms such as enlarged liver and spleen lymph nodes, bone and joint pain, etc. If there are unexplained fever, hemorrhage and other symptoms mentioned above, parents should bring their children to the doctor in time to make a clear diagnosis, and the specific time of detecting leukemia varies from person to person.