This winter was going along pretty well until very recently Baby Pencil caught RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus)! While RSV can be handled pretty easily for older kids and adults, it can be very dangerous for babies under 1 years old. My pediatrician told me that when it came to any type of wheezing or breathing issues for young babies, it’s always best to bring them in just in case.
I first noticed Baby Pencil having a tiny cough that started to turn for the worse. I thought nothing of it since it seemed like a regular cold. She didn’t have a fever and was still eating just fine. However since it was Friday, I dropped by the pediatrician to get a prescription just in case we needed it over the weekend. She listened to her lungs and they seemed fine, but still gave us a prescription of Albuterol just in case we needed to use the nebulizer. I gave her a couple Albuterol treatments over the weekend, but by Sunday afternoon her wheezing was getting much worse. Her breaths started to become faster and drinking from the bottle was starting to get difficult because she couldn’t breathe through her nose. I took her to urgent care, where she was given a steroid shot and another round of Albuterol through the nebulizer. I was sure she was going to respond to at least the steroid shot, but after about 1-2 hours of waiting around she was doing the same. They also took some x-rays to check for pneumonia and swabbed her nose to check if she had the flu. She tested negative for both, but they told us we should admit her to the Emergency Room anyway because of her shallow breathing.
I drove her to the Emergency Room where I was met with a sea of sick people. I was so paranoid about the flu, so I tried looking for a clear corner of the room! After being admitted in the ER, I noticed that her breathing was actually getting better. I think the steroid shot just took a few hours to finally kick in. I really thought they were going to check her out and that we could go home right after. But after another couple hours of waiting and talking to the nurses, they said that we should admit her at least overnight for monitoring. I was totally not prepared at all for this! It seemed like such a small thing – a cough and some wheezing. With the rectal thermometer she did end up having a small fever of about 101. But they really wanted to make sure that she had enough oxygen and didn’t get worse.
I had gone to urgent care at 3:00pm on Sunday, and by the time we got admitted to our hospital room it was 2:00am, Monday morning. Baby Pencil had been pricked, prodded, monitored over and over so many times. She basically didn’t sleep for about 11 hours because someone needed to do something to her. She is usually such an easy baby but she cried so much many times to the point of throwing up! (I don’t blame her!)
Once we were in our own little hospital room, things went along more smoothly. Her oxygen was being monitored and mucus was suctioned out of her nose every so often. She was hooked up to an iv, which was pretty horrific for an infant! They strapped a foam board to her arm to make sure it didn’t bend, but I couldn’t imagine it being very comfortable. Since she was hooked on so many wires, it was hard to hold her – let alone feed her! I couldn’t breastfeed her because of the awkward positioning, so I mostly gave her formula bottles or pumped milk. My husband and I had to take turns staying over the night, which was really exhausting. Her oxygen was really low sometimes so they had to put in the nose oxygen mask – another horrible thing for an infant to wear! Nurses came in all through the night and we ended up sharing the room with another family with a 7 month old boy who also had RSV. It seemed that the hospital was pretty full of poor, sick kids!
After a few days, her oxygen levels were getting better and her wheezing had cleared up. She was off the oxygen mask and definitely had no fever. It felt wonderful to go home! Even though the staff was wonderful and understanding, the hospital was the last place I wanted to be with an infant!
Here are some random things I learned about staying at hospitals with young babies:
- Anything related to wheezing or the inability to breathe well – go straight to the ER. (Not urgent care.) It may save you a trip and double waiting time!
- If Albuterol nebulizer treatments aren’t working at home, you may need to get a steroid injection/oral treatment. After that, the Albuterol treatments should have more of an effect.
- This may vary per hospital, but in order to be discharged Baby Pencil had to be off the oxygen machine, have no fever and have better breathing for 24 hours.
- Much like your stay in the hospital after birth, the hospital provided pretty much everything from facial wipes to diapers! It was really nice to have these supplies readily available. Since I was a breastfeeding mom, I even got free hospital food. (Which I kindly rejected, after seeing what it was like!)
I truly hope everyone one can avoid being hospitalized because it’s heartbreaking to see your babies so uncomfortable and upset, but at the same time I was really grateful that they were taking extra precautions to make sure she was recovering well. They take breathing issues seriously for a reason!
wonderful pomelo / 30692 posts
So sorry you had to go through this! My kids have asthma, so we’ve been hospitalized a few times, and that first time can be sooooooo scary!!
Another rule our hospital has (and maybe yours does too) is that you can’t go home until you’re on albuterol every 4 hours or less – anything more often has to be monitored. My hospital also likes to observe your oxygen while you’re sleeping, since oxygen levels tend to dip down while asleep, to ensure your levels are still high enough to sleep at home safely.
guest
So sorry you had to experience a hospital stay! My child got RSV at 2 months old but we didn’t have to go to the hospital thankfully. She’s now 3 and has been susceptible to getting any and every kind of chest congestion / wheezing when she gets the slightest bit sick since then. I really think it was because she had RSV at such a young age.
guest
Amanda and Adira- I second both of your posts and it is SO hard. My daughter got rsv at 10 eeeks (thanks big sibling in preschool) and because of that it seems like every cold turns into a breathing crisis. She is two now and we actually had our first hospitalization last Friday. I know as a parent it seems like they are feeling ok but the respiratory score takes more into consideration and even though it is tough I’m glad they have somewhat quantified measures to assess.
pomegranate / 3438 posts
Mine wasn’t hospitalized but he had to have a bag of fluids for dehydration at urgent care. The IV is the worst. It took two tries for the nurses to get it in. Then he had the foam board and lots of wrapping because he kept trying to pull it out. Luckily it was at a children’s urgent care so they had ipads with movies and snacks for my older son that had to go with us.
grape / 89 posts
That’s crazy – my little guy had RSV at 3 months and it was AWFUL, but he was never hospitalized. Unfortunately the RSV made his lungs pretty weak and he is prone to asthma and breathing issues now. From the time he was 1.5-2.5 he had pneumonia 6 times and ended up having to be put under so they could scope his lungs to make sure the pneumonia wasn’t being cause by something he inhaled. Nope, just a HORRIBLE side effect of having RSV as an infant.
cherry / 196 posts
I’m so glad she’s out of the hospital and feeling better! We had an RSV scare when my son was 2 months old that was super scary. We went to one hospital and they said we needed to be admitted, but because he was so little they transferred us to a specialized children’s hospital. Within the first hour of getting to children’s my LO had to be intubated because he was having such difficulty breathing. He was then intubated for 7 days. Our whole hospital stay was about two weeks. Because of the long period of time while intubated, he had to be given methadone for days even after release because their little bodies get addicted to the sedation drugs. Plus, he had to relearn how to suck and eat. God, just thinking back on it is awful! I’m glad that your hospital stay was short and that your little one bounced back quickly!
blogger / apricot / 335 posts
@Adira: That was totally us! Her oxygen was 90s during awake time but dipped down to the 80s when she slept. I would get nervous because of all the beeping
The dip in her sleep is what made them put an oxygen mask on her. SO sorry to hear you’ve been through the same!!
@Amanda and Amber: YIKES, you guys had RSV at even a younger age! I’m so sorry you guys had to go through that too. I had no idea that having RSV as an infant potentially meant you have similar problems as you get older. But that makes sense
@KT326: I agree… the IV was HORRIBLE! Even adults hate the IV, but putting it on an infant!? The worst. And if you’re older, of course you want to keep pulling it out! Baby Pencil is used to being swaddled so we had to just leave that arm out.
@deannab1: Oh NO! That is horrible having pneumonia so many times and being put under! Wowow…
@DenverMom: Intubated for 7 days!! Crazy! And 2 weeks!! =O You guys must have been through so much. Isn’t this crazy what things people never tell you about early parenting…?! I’m so glad that your LO is better, although you guys must have been put through the ringer with all that. I’m also terrified to get my hospital bill because we have sucky insurance…
nectarine / 2047 posts
Ugh RSV is the WORST. DS got it when he was 13 weeks old – one week after starting daycare. He is now 27 months old and still has a daily nebulizer of pulmicort and levalbuterol as needed. He has been hospitalized once and to the ER twice for breathing issues. Now, we can usually stave off the ER bc we know what to look for and can start nebulizers early and often. He has anpediatric pulmonologist and an asthma doctor. It sucks that all these little ones have chronic breathing issues bc of RSV ☹️
papaya / 10560 posts
Wow! My 12 week old (now 5 months) got RSV in December. It was so scary! I am so grateful our ped did not want to admit because there was so much illness at the time she said babies can often pick something else up in the hospital. I have 2 other kids who were sick a lot as infants but had not had a baby so sick before. Same–O2 in the low 90’s during the day and 80’s at night. LO was practically blue in the face from so much coughing.