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When new parents take their baby to the pediatrician's office for the first couple of well-baby visits, the doctor might mention
respiratory syncytial virus – better known as RSV.
It's the most common cause of lower
respiratory tract infections in children around the world, and by age 3, virtually
all children contract it. But unless you've known a family who's had an
infant with a severe case of RSV, chances are you'll not give this virus
much thought.
"We see many cases of RSV every year," says Dr. Rajaram Rao, a pediatrician in Ithaca, N.Y. The RSV season runs from November through April. Pediatricians like Dr. Rao see many, many cases of RSV during these months, and most of them just look like a common cold. But there are babies for whom RSV becomes a very serious illness.
RSV is the leading cause of pneumonia and bronchiolitis in infants. |
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RSV is the leading cause of pneumonia and bronchiolitis in infants. Bronchiolitis begins with mild symptoms of an upper respiratory tract infection and progresses to include coughing, wheezing and an increased respiratory rate. Because infants have smaller peripheral airways than adults, it's important to manage these symptoms before they become serious or even life threatening.
My 4.5 month old son is currently in the hospital with RSV-related complications. He had a bronchilitis and the over-inflation that causes in the lungs combined with the effort of breathing caused a rupture and he developed a leak. It was hard to know what was going on but in the course of a few hours he stopped feeding, could not sleep for more than 20 mins at a time and finally started to turn blue around his nose and mouth. At which point of course we rushed him to the hospital. He has been in intensive care for almost a week now and was just taken off the ventilator today. I had never heard of RSV before but it is incredibly scary and everyone should watch out for it!
My daughter has RSV now and you can tell how uncomfortable it is for her. She is miserable.
My son had RSV when he was 2 weeks old, but we had no way of telling, he was just "not right" as I put it to the hospital, so they checked his oxygen rate with the machine, as they do any time a baby is brought in. They tried four machines because they thought it was broken, the number should have been at 99 percent, my son was at 24 percent. They said if that is the real number, he should be blue, and technically almost dead. It was a big surprise. They admitted him right away, and two hours later, told me it was RSV. He was in the hospital for three weeks, then they sent us home. My son was on oxygen tanks for another six weeks after that.
He wasn't wheezing, or coughing, no runny nose, he was just "not right."
I thank the heavens for mother's instinct, as RSV is very hard to detect sometimes, and in my case, I hadn't even heard of it until after my son was already in the hospital.
Content provided on this site is for educational purposes only and should not be construed to be medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
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