Hello!

My  13 year old daughter has tested positive to Glandular Fever. Any advice on helping her to recover? She can hardly drag herself out of bed, has dizzy spells & feels nauseous. She has already had these symptoms for 2+ weeks and is very upset she is so sick, I’m making sure she gets plenty of rest & drinking fluids, but don’t know what else to do. Feeling helpless.


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  • take it slow babe – I had it really badly. my tonsils were rotting in my throat. you will be susceptible to all sorts of sickness. I wish you a speedy recovery


  • Sorry to say that rest and fluids are the best. It’s a slow road to recovery.


  • Dear mom 129284 I do understand what you must be going through. It is very distressing to have a sick child. I had glandular fever many years ago with pneumonia and they wondered why I was not getting any better . They did the Paul Bunnel test and sure enough I had this horrible illness! I eventually got over the pneumonia but the other hung round for 18 months or more. I had 4 kids and a darling hubby to look after at this time. It is terribly debilitating and saps up any energy you may have .I would make a bed and have a ly down to recover before I made the next one.
    Does your daughter like knitting or reading? Taking your mind off yourself or diversion helps. You can only watch so much telly or watch favourite dvd’s
    Glandular Fever takes a long time to get over and it is a long slow process. However younger people tend to get over these things quicker than adults so fingers crossed. Just keep being a wonderful mum that you are and give her plenty of TLC and try and get her interested in a hobby like crochet or even a loom and she can make hats , bags and scarves. It is quite easy once you get the idea. Good luck and hang in there. x x Kindest regards Robyn.


  • poor thing. I hope she gets better soon


  • I had Glandular Fever when I was 18. i found a mix of raspberry cordial and lemonade really helped me keep my fluids up. I would also suggest trying to distract her from her symptoms might be helpful. Like a tv series on dvd that she can just lay back on watchor a book to read.


  • From memory I felt like that for weeks when I had Glandular Fever. Just lots of rest and listening to her body. As frustrating as it is there is not much you can do but give her lots of love.


  • Also; adding to my comment below. Plenty of TLC and love from mum! :) I had a very bad case and had a slow recovery and just knowing that I was cared for and loved made a difference.


  • Plenty of rest as she will want to sleep most of the time. It can take a very long time to recover from Glandular Fever.


  • I had this. Lots of vitamin C! Fruit juice daily. Slightly cooler showers, hot showers make one droswey. Good diet. No junk. Again fruit juice!!


  • Your poor daughter. I had this in my late teens I remember the time as being weeks and weeks of drifting in and out of consciousness and crawling to the toilet. I’m not sure that there’s much you can do other than rest and keep her fluids up. I didn’t feel like eating much at all during the first couple of weeks so perhaps make up a big batch of chicken and veggie broth that your daughter can sip on so that she’s still getting some nutrients.
    You’ll probably hear a lot of horror stories about it coming back again and again and of it becoming chronic fatigue syndrome but I believe these complications to be fairly rare. I certainly didn’t have either problem and hopefully your daughter has a full and (relatively) speedy recovery. Good luck.


  • My sister had this when she was a teenager. Three times, three different strains. She visited a Naturopath who advised her to take echinacea, B-complex vitamin or a multi-mineral supplement, as well as vitamin C and magnesium. She told her to eat colourful vegetables, fruits and good-quality proteins. This would help the body’s immune system. Drink at eight large glasses of water a day, avoid alcohol, sugar, dairy and fatty foods. She never shares her utensils, cup and drink bottle. She is very careful so she never gets this again. It took time for her to get well. She did have a course of vitamin B injections the last time and she felt much better with in weeks of that. Ask your family doctor?


  • They call it the Kissing disease. I got glandular fever when I was 16 & still get it often, at least every 2-3 years. Last time it came back I found Difflam-C to work wonders. Gargle a mouth full of the solution about 10-15 minutes before you eat, this will numb the throat & you\’ll be able to put some food into your belly. (I lived on Yogurt) Vitamin C tablets are good to take too. Keep hydrated with hydrolites but until it pops & discharges the gunk rest up. Once you have had glandular fever it can & will reoccur. More so when you are feeling stress or not eating healthy. Taking multi vitamins daily after you feel better will help prevent it from coming back in the future. All the best, I hope it\’s over soon.


  • I had glandular fever a year after having cytomegalovirus (worse then glandular) in year 12. I was so sick with the CMV I had to leave school and was told I’d just have to ride it out, there was nothing dr’s could do. The thing that helped me was seeing a naturopath who put me on to a few supplements – zinc, colostrum powder (from cows) and another powder I can’t remember. For me, these worked within a week. I wasn’t 100% but after barely being able to get out of bed for months, I could finally at least function! I didn’t have too bad a case of glandular fever thankfully but having the two so close did effect my liver. I hope she feels better soon but I highly recommend a naturopath to see if they can offer any help.


  • A high potency vitamin B supplement will help – I used one called “Tresos B”

    The other thing is rest rest rest – don’t try to push it as it will just make it take longer to recover and could lead to other problems


  • Getting plenty of rest and drinking lots of fluid is very important during recovery. Pain and discomfort can usually be adequately treated with pain relief medication such as paracetamol.


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