Cystic Fibrosis
What are they symptoms of CF?
Cystic fibrosis can be noticed at any age, but most children will be picked up in the first year of life.
Children who fail to open their bowels in the first 24 hours of life may have CF. This is called meconium ileus and is characterised by an extremely thick and sticky stool (meconium). Up to 15% of infants with CF present with meconium ileus. Only a minority of children with CF are detected when they are newborn.
Babies with CF do not tend to grow as well as other children. This is often termed 'failure to thrive', and is recognised when a baby or child does not put on as much weight as expected. This is because the pancreas is not working properly. In the lungs CF is characterised by production of thick mucus (or sputum) and repeated chest infections.