Signs and Symptoms

Signs and Symptoms


Kids who have sickle cell anemia may feel pain in their chest, stomach, or bones when blood vessels get clogged with sickle cells. The pain can last a few minutes or several days, and it might hurt a lot or just a little. When this happens, it's called a sickle cell crisis (a crisis means a time of trouble).



Nobody knows exactly when sickle cells might get stuck or which blood vessels might get clogged. Certain conditions, like if a person gets too cold, gets sick, or doesn't drink enough fluid, can lead to a sickle cell crisis. Doctors and nurses can help by giving strong medicine to relieve the pain.



Because kids with sickle cell anemia don't have enough normal RBCs, they get tired more easily. They also get infections more often than other kids do. They may not grow as fast as their friends.



Sometimes the whites of their eyes have a yellowish color, known as jaundice (say: jon-dus), and they may have to go to the bathroom a lot. In little kids — usually those under age 2 — sickle cell anemia can cause their hands and feet to swell and hurt. Sometimes they can have more serious illnesses and have to stay in the hospital.



What Causes Sickle Cell Anemia?

Sickle cell anemia is an inherited (say: in-hair-uh-ted) disease. That means you can't catch it like you can catch a cold or the flu. Kids are born with the disease when both parents pass along the sickle cell anemia gene to their children.



Some scientists think sickle cell anemia may be connected to malaria (say: muh-lar-ee-uh), a serious and sometimes deadly disease that's common in Africa. It is believed that people who carry the gene for sickle cell anemia are less likely to catch malaria. So more of these people survived and passed on the sickle cell gene to their children.



More people of African heritage have sickle cell anemia than any other group of people. In the United States, about 1 out of every 500 African Americans has the disease. But some people of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern heritage can have sickle cell genes, too.