How often do young children get polycythemia?

Rarely: Primary polycythemias, including congenital polycythemia and polycythemia vera, are rare genetic disorders where one makes too many red blood cells. Its incidence varies from 3-30:100, 000. Secondary polycythemia is a response to hypoxia, transfusion, or injection of erythropoietin. Its incidence is hard to determine, since it is often a benign, self-limited condition, especially in young children.

Rarely: Polycythemia vera is relatively uncommon in condition in adults, and rarer in children. On the other hand, newborns can have high Hct of Hgb due to extra placental blood. Dehydration can artificially look like polycythemia but resolves with hydration, and lung or congenital heart disease disease or living at high elevations can stimulate the bone marrow to increase the red blood cell