Michelle Heaton won’t know for months whether her baby son will suffer long-term health problems after recently contracting meningitis.
The Liberty X singer was left frantic with worry last week when six-week-old Aaron, who is known as AJ, was diagnosed with the potentially-deadly disease, and tests have failed to establish whether he has a viral or bacterial strain.
She said: "Tests to discover whether the meningitis is bacterial or viral were inconclusive, so he had to go back in to have them re-done. They’re 99.9 per cent sure it’s viral but they can’t chance it so they’re having to treat it as bacterial – the more serious of the two.
"We won’t know the effects it might have on AJ until he’s older – like possible behavioural problems, hearing and sight abnormalities – but the risks are low because we caught it straight away. In three months he’ll have his hearing and sight tested again."
Michelle and her husband Hugh Hanley were particularly shocked by the tot’s diagnosis as they had initially gone to hospital to get him checked out for something else.
She explained in an interview with Britain’s OK! magazine: "Last week he had been bringing up his milk and it slowly got worse. After the doctors saw him, they said they were worried about his high temperature and the colour of his skin.
"Hugh and I didn’t understand – we hadn’t seen any of those signs. It must have come on while we were there so we were lucky we were already at the hospital for something unrelated."
Michelle Heaton worried about baby’s health
