Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is running rampid

[SA Friday]

Pediatric floors in hospitals are currently full of young kids and babies with severe cases of RSV. If you have younglings, watch them close. It's mild in older kids and adults, but can be deadly in babies and elderly.

We called in a favor from a pediatrician we know late last night and ended up taking our 2 month old day care kid and her mom to the hospital for eval. The baby was admitted. Her blood O2 levels were in the danger zone due to mucus buildup in her lungs and nasal passages.

Every one of our young day care kids had gotten it over the last two weeks, and it didn't originate in our house.

[SU405]

Good looking out. Thanks for the heads up.

[Beer]

[GreenScoutII]

Yeah, RSV is bad news. my kids are just getting over that shit. Wife got it too. Thank God nobody had to be hospitalized....

[Irving]

Is this something that has no symptoms, or will you know they are sick first?

[SA Friday]

http://www.rsvinfo.com/

[68Charger]

My kids have had sore throats & fevers running 1-2 days... could be RSV... just not hitting them real hard (youngest is 3)

worst we ever had was my youngest daughter (now 7) had Croup (sp?) a few years ago... her throat was closing up (to the point she was scared), got better when she got out in the cold & the swelling went down, but we spent the night in the ER anyway...

[Troublco]

All young kids are at risk, but anyone with a preemie or child with some sort of compromised immune system must be especially vigilant. When my daughter, who was nearly 8 weeks early, finally came home from the hospital NICU it was nearly a year before we could start relaxing at all with regards to people washing their hands before they even touched her. My mother, interestingly enough, had the hardest time with this one.
One or two other thoughts - for those who have the little ones, remember not to use kitchen towels or regular hand towels for drying your hands after you wash. These provide places not only for the stuff you're trying to wash off to congregate, but also to cross contaminate everyone else that uses them. Use paper towels. It's the best way to keep your hands clean after you've washed them and prevent everyone from sharing. And hand sanitizer is great, but it's supposed to be used along with washing hands, not instead of. Seriously, read the packages. It is not a substitute for hand washing. And when you're talking about something as important as a little one, I always err on the side of caution.

Thanks for the heads-up, SA Friday.

[tmckay2]

yeah my good friends son just got it

[newracer]

That is probably what my son has, he's 8. Slowly getting over it.

[GreenScoutII]

All young kids are at risk, but anyone with a preemie or child with some sort of compromised immune system must be especially vigilant. When my daughter, who was nearly 8 weeks early, finally came home from the hospital NICU it was nearly a year .

Yeah, my twin girls now 3 yrs, were born about 7 weeks early. One was in NICU for 3 weeks, the other for a month. On oxygen an additional 6 weeks after being released. SCARY times. I thank God they came through it ok!

[Troublco]

Yeah, my twin girls now 3 yrs, were born about 7 weeks early. One was in NICU for 3 weeks, the other for a month. On oxygen an additional 6 weeks after being released. SCARY times. I thank God they came through it ok!

Yeah, my daughter was in the NICU for 5 weeks and on oxygen for about 8. That was a huge ordeal, we were out of town when things started and by the time it was all over it involved an ambulance, a helicopter, and a Beech King Air. Thinking back I'm really glad she was my first, so I didn't have any other experience to compare it to. When my son was on the way, I kept a full EMT bag with us all the time with everything I thought I might possibly need and although I wound up not needing it (Thank God) he was still 4 weeks early. At least I had an idea what to do then. And he still required a high speed drive to the hospital early on a Sunday morning.

[theGinsue]

My kids are of the age where I don't expect it to be an issue for them (17 & 20).

I have an antibody in my blood (may have passed it to my kids) that protects me from RSV. It used to be a big deal when donating blood (O Neg with RSV antibody). When I was initially told about this I did some research and found out why it was so important to kids.

I pray that everyone heals quickly for all of you who are dealing with this.

[Jer]

Running rampid? Do you mean running rampant? [Tooth]

On a serious note, glad you caught it early and hopefully it all turns out alright.