BABY Jack Adamson has been fighting for his life in hospital since Monday, 3 December, after being diagnosed with the less common bacterial meningitis.

The 11-month-old has spent the week at the Royal United Hospital, Bath on drips and antibiotics and has had a brain scan.

His parents Emma and Gordon Adamson, of New Road, Trowbridge, are now warning other families to be alert for all the tell tale signs of meningitis and not just the rash everyone has heard of.

Mrs Adamson said: He started crying at 2am on Monday and we just thought he was teething. At 5am he was really irritable and didnt want his milk or food, which for my son is a big problem. Then he started sleeping a lot. He went like a rag doll. He is a big baby, 2.5 stones, but was like a rag doll and very pale.

The family rang their doctor and hospital for advice and were told to give him Calpol, but there was no rash when they took him to the hospital for a check. It was not until the afternoon, when they went back to the doctor that they were told to go to hospital.

Mrs Adamson said: There wasnt a rash. We thought it was just some kind of flu. When my husband came home at 2pm, Jack was just not right. There was still no rash. When we got him there we discovered the odd spot, but no rash.

I want other mums not to only listen to the advice about the rash. I dont want someone else to go through want we have gone through. Even the hospital was not 100 per cent sure it was meningitis until Tuesday after tests.

The family has been told Jacks size has helped him fight off the worst.

Mrs Adamson said: It has helped that he is such a big boy. A baby half his size may not have lived.

Symptoms the National Meningitis Trust advises parents to watch out for in babies include: fever, cold hands and feet, refusing food, vomiting, high-pitched moaning cries or whimpering, a dislike of being handled, a neck reaction with arching of the back, blank and staring expression, lethargy and a pale blotchy complexion.

The bacteria are very common and live naturally in the back of the nose and throat. It is spread by people coughing, sneezing and intimate kissing. The bacteria do not live for long outside the body, so cant be picked up from water supplies, swimming pools or buildings.

Bacterial meningitis is fairly uncommon, but it can be extremely serious. It is fatal in one in 10 cases and one in seven survivors is left with a serious disability.