Symptoms and signs
When infected with the mumps virus, one or both of the parotid glands often gets bigger, causing a marked swelling of the face, below and in front of the ears.
The child may have pain in the jaw and upper part of the throat when chewing, swallowing and speaking.
The child also may have a fever, poor appetite, difficulty swallowing, headache, muscle aches, nausea and vomiting.
However, some children with mumps infections have no symptoms at all, while other children have only mild cold-like symptoms.
The swelling of the parotid glands usually goes down after one week and disappears by 10 days, but the two sides may swell up and then go down in size at different times.
Complications
Most children recover completely from mumps but there can be serious complications.
Adolescent and adult males who become infected with mumps may develop orchitis, an infection in one or both of the testicles. This results in the testicles being swollen and painful for about a week and there may also be nausea, vomiting and fever. Mumps orchitis can cause some shrinkage of the testicles but only rarely causes sterility.
In rare cases, mumps can be complicated by meningitis, an inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal column that causes symptoms such as headache, sensitivity to light, neck stiffness, and fatigue.
Inflammation of the parotid gland also rarely causes deafness, arthritis, heart, kidney, and other problems.
