RSV experience?

[garddwr]

My 4 month old has RSV--diagnosed yesterday, he's on albuterol with a nebulizer as well as oral predisone to keep his wheezing under control. He's miserable (has an ear infection on top of it all) but doing OK. We're going back to the doctor for a re-check this afternoon.

 

I haven't dealt with RSV before, can anyone with experience tell me how long it is likely to take to get over for the baby? Also, the whole family has the virus and I don't want to spread it to other people--how long are we likely to be infectious?

[kokotg]

My youngest had mild RSV when he was 2 months old, I think? He was on a nebulizer for a little while, and then he was fine. He is my one that wound up with (very mild) asthma and (not so mild) allergies, though. I didn't think anything about it when he had the RSV because he was over it so quickly, but it does mean issues like that are more likely to crop up later, just as a head's up.

[StartingOver]

Both of my children had RSV when my daughter was 6 months and my son 2.3. For my daughter who was born healthy it only lasted a few days. She was rarely sick after, and when she was it was mildly. For my son who was premature with lung issues it lasted weeks. He had an awful time with anything he picked up for years. This is the first year, at 6 That I am not terrified for him, since he did so well last year.

[wapiti]

My premie twins had RSV at around 12 months old. One was fine. The other was in the hospital on oxygen for a few days. (They are 9 y.o. now - the one who was fine is now major asthma boy, and the one who was in the hospital rarely has any wheezing issues with colds - go figure.)

 

Keep up with the neb treatments. If your doc said to do them in the night every four hours, don't forget to wake up - keeping up with the nighttime treatments seems to make a significant difference in how quickly they get better.

[BlueTaelon]

If he's healthy in general he will be fine, we've dealt with it many times and I'll save you the horror stories. Just keep him with you at all times and know how to clear his airways if needed and keep your cell changed and a bag packed for the hospital JIC. It always turned ugly for us but I had an immune deficient kid.

[mum]

Had one with RSV 1 week after birth and again the next winter. Also some family members with it. But it was OK. Just be religious with breathing treatments. Mine was in hosp. for a week (full term baby) each time with it. I was very careful to ask people after that not to come over if they were sick, and we limited passing baby around. All the best to you, this too shall pass.

[garddwr]

Thank you to everyone who has shared their experience. I'm really, really hoping to avoid the hospital.

 

 

Keep up with the neb treatments. If your doc said to do them in the night every four hours, don't forget to wake up - keeping up with the nighttime treatments seems to make a significant difference in how quickly they get better.

 

Thank you for that tip. It's so tempting to let him sleep if he is sleeping, but I really, really want him to get better.

[Woodhaven]

My third, 5 weeks premature, had RSV at 2 months old. He had been on a ventilator for 10 days after birth. It took him about a week and a half before he was doing well enough that I stopped worrying. I know how hard it is, but you will get through this!

 

Wow, your child gets breathing treatments?? I wanted that for mine, but was just told to never put him down at night - my dh and I were told to take turns holding him in an upright position for 4 hours at a time (so we could each get some sleep!!). During the day I was to keep him near me at all times and hold him as often as possible. Boy, were we weary by the time he started getting better!! I really wanted to take him back to the hospital and let the experts keep him safe, but our ped. said he would be fine if we just kept him with us at all times.

 

Hugs!!

[lmrich]

My youngest had RSV at 5 weeks. She was a full term healthy baby otherwise. We stayed in the hospital a week. We continued with breathing treatments for a month. She is never sick now, Or even as a toddler with colds or anything lingering around. Hope your little one gets better quick and you get some rest.

[BlueTaelon]

Thank you to everyone who has shared their experience. I'm really, really hoping to avoid the hospital.

 

 

 

Thank you for that tip. It's so tempting to let him sleep if he is sleeping, but I really, really want him to get better.

 

 

You don't need to wake him for treatments, just blow it in his face with the tube about 1-2 inches from his mouth/nose. The mask caused my kids to scream bloody murder in terror but they were fine with blow by *most of the time* and usually slept through treatments. My oldest HATED them though until she was old enough to the pipe herself so a lot of times I'd have her snuggled up in my shirt against my skin while she nursed and would sneak the tube under my shirt and created a mist tent effect, worked rather well and without the fighting.

[garddwr]

 

 

You don't need to wake him for treatments, just blow it in his face with the tube about 1-2 inches from his mouth/nose. The mask caused my kids to scream bloody murder in terror but they were fine with blow by *most of the time* and usually slept through treatments. My oldest HATED them though until she was old enough to the pipe herself so a lot of times I'd have her snuggled up in my shirt against my skin while she nursed and would sneak the tube under my shirt and created a mist tent effect, worked rather well and without the fighting.

 

 

Now there's an idea I hadn't thought of.

[Donna]

My dd had RSV twice, at 5 months and 19 months. She was on a nebulizer with albuterol the first time (don't remember how long...was a long time ago) and the 2nd time ended up in the hospital with pneumonia. She was a sick little thing, running 105 fever and just laid there when I took her into the ER. They did the nebulizer twice as much as we could at home and kept an eye on her O2 sats and heart rate. She was in the hospital for 5 days and had the virus for 4 days before that. She was then on a nebulizer for about 3 weeks after we got home.

 

Since the first time with RSV she has needed a nebulizer any time she gets sick with anything whether it is respiratory or a stomach bug (why that I don't know). I think this year was the first time she handled a cold without needing to be neb'd. She also had some exercise induced asthma when she was 5yo but seems to have outgrown that.

 

She never minded the neb treatments and would hold the mask over her own face even when she was 5 months old like she knew it helped. She was born 4 weeks early and was on an apnea monitor for the 1st 4 months of her life but the insurance company refused to pay for RSV shots (if she had been born two days earlier they would have paid)...I think they ended up paying even more for all the doctor visits, medications, and hospitalization. :glare:

 

I don't know how long you shed the virus but I am sure an internet search would tell you.

[Ottakee]

Good suggestions. My youngest was hospitalized with RSV when she was little.

 

I agree with doing the neb treatments around the clock. It is so much better to stay ahead of this and give an extra treatment or 2 than to see if it is "really needed" and end up in trouble.

 

I would also monitor very closely the next time a cold/virus hits as my daughter still struggles with breathing stuff at age 16 when she gets sick. In fact we were to ER just 2 weeks ago with an asthma attack.

[amo_mea_filiis.]

Mine did NOT ever has RSV, so my comment refers to asthma-

 

My son's pulmonologist did want me doing blow by treatments. I was supposed to wake him and hope it made him mad because he would breathe harder/deeper than if i let him sleep through it. Even when in the ER, the docs and techs would NOT try to calm him; they just had me hold him, screaming bloody murder while a nurse or resp tech gave the treatment.

 

Now at 8 years i am allowed to do blow by. I dont know if their opinion changed, he improved, or if they felt bad that i could no longer handle screaming treatments.

 

Check with your doc.

[Murmer]

My ds had RSV when he was 9 months old and we ended up in the hospital for 3 days. The doctors said that day 5 was the worst in terms of symptoms and it was a week and half before I felt like we were on the way up. They also said it was worse during sleep so that was when I watched him the most.

[Izzy]

My youngest had RSV when he was about 4 months. We did the nebulizer with Albuterol and I think it lasted a week or so. He was sick for almost a week before he was diagnosed so closer to 2 weeks in all. He was diagnosed in the ER and the nurse also held him down but didn't put the mask on him. She said it was actually better when they cried because they inhaled more of it.

 

Oh, and he's fine today. No allergies or asthma. :)

[BlueTaelon]

Mine did NOT ever has RSV, so my comment refers to asthma-

 

My son's pulmonologist did want me doing blow by treatments. I was supposed to wake him and hope it made him mad because he would breathe harder/deeper than if i let him sleep through it. Even when in the ER, the docs and techs would NOT try to calm him; they just had me hold him, screaming bloody murder while a nurse or resp tech gave the treatment.

 

Now at 8 years i am allowed to do blow by. I dont know if their opinion changed, he improved, or if they felt bad that i could no longer handle screaming treatments.

 

Check with your doc.

 

 

They figured out its less effective when the kid is screaming is why they changed the recc's. Here's a good explanation http://respiratorytherapycave.blogspot.com/2008/11/crying-not-good-during-breathing-txs.html

[amo_mea_filiis.]

 

 

 

They figured out its less effective when the kid is screaming is why they changed the recc's. Here's a good explanation http://respiratorytherapycave.blogspot.com/2008/11/crying-not-good-during-breathing-txs.html

Thank you.

 

That is very very good to know! So maybe he improved when the docs stopped trying to piss him off! Lol. When he was between 5 and 6 is when it changed (regarding docs treating him).

 

 

[greenbabybottoms]

My youngest is just getting over RSVP but she's 16 months. No breathing treatments for her or anything. She was diagnosed on Friday, but the doc said she believed it started on Thursday. She told us it was typically 4 days with day 3 and 4 being the worst, day 3 was by far the worst for us. she said she was definitely contagious while they had the fever and it was possibly contagious as long as the cough lasted but to not worry about that, we are still laying low and trying to avoid going out as much as possible until cough clears up. I Assume my older 2 have it too up ey are 4 and 6, it's really just a bad cold for them.

[Cindy in FL.]

My ds17 was born at 37 weeks and was 5 lb. 7 oz. when he was 11 days old he was hospitalized for 10 days with RSV and a partially collapsed lung. He had breathing treatments and respiratory therapy in the hospital. No treatments after he was released.

[Canadianmumof5]

Sorry no experience. Just wanted to send prayers for you. We were just in the ER on Saturday since our GP thought our baby girl may have it. The test for RSV was neg. for us.

 

Hope your little one feels better soon.

[lovinmomma]

My third, 5 weeks premature, had RSV at 2 months old. He had been on a ventilator for 10 days after birth. It took him about a week and a half before he was doing well enough that I stopped worrying. I know how hard it is, but you will get through this!

 

Wow, your child gets breathing treatments?? I wanted that for mine, but was just told to never put him down at night - my dh and I were told to take turns holding him in an upright position for 4 hours at a time (so we could each get some sleep!!). During the day I was to keep him near me at all times and hold him as often as possible. Boy, were we weary by the time he started getting better!! I really wanted to take him back to the hospital and let the experts keep him safe, but our ped. said he would be fine if we just kept him with us at all times.

 

Hugs!!

 

 

This happened to me, too!!! My ped said it was the worst case of RSV he had seen in awhile, but never gave us any sort of breathing treatment for my 6mo old son's RSV. Looking back, I wish I had demanded something. I didn't sleep for at least a week. I was so scared he would stop breathing. Ugh. I can hardly stand the thought of thinking about it. That child is now my healthiest child, though.

[lovinmomma]

My dd gets horrible wheezing every time she has a cold. She now (as of recently) has an inhaler for when she has a cold. This time it turned into pneumonia. Looking back, I wonder if she had RSV when she was younger and now she is just more susceptible to upper respiratory junk.

[Jann in TX]

My middle dd was one of the first to be diagnosed with RSV-- and we happened to live very close to the ONLY lab in the country that could run the test.

She was a premie (34 weeker) and was 8 weeks old when she woke up one day not able to get enough air to cry or nurse!

DD spent 3 weeks in the hospital (actually she stayed at 3 different hospitals if you count the first one the ambulance took her to-- the Dr there took one look at her and told us they did not treat what she had and ordered us to leave immediately! (which was a good thing). The second hospital was 1 hour from home--but they took great care of her-- she crashed the second day there-- the nurses saved her life because the new Dr our HMO assigned us would NOT come it or do anything (he told us to pat the baby on the back... not helpful if she CANNOT BREATE AT ALL!)...We ended up downtown Chicago (1.5-3 hours from home depending on traffic)...

DD was on neb treatments every 4 hours (or more frequent) for the first 3.5 years of her life-- then she had occasions when we could finally sleep through the night.

At 6 months she was dx-ed with 'asthma' (they now call it Reactive Airway Disease)... a common side effect of RSV. I had a great Pediatrician who had twins the same age who were also going through this RSV nightmare...

DD was a frequent flyer at the hospital-- they knew us by name when we came in...

Her last hospital visit was when she was 11.5 years old-- a whole week and she was in bad shape for most of it.

Her last 'asthma' attack was when she was around 13.

[garddwr]

It's interesting to me that so many talk about their RSV babies later having Reactive Airway Disease/asthma attacks whenever the later got a respiratory infection. My oldest dd was like this until she was about 6 years old--any respiratory illness would start her wheezing. I wonder now if she had RSV as a baby, maybe that first time she had to have breathing treatments? I don't remember them ever testing. She's the only one who hasn't been significantly sick this past week, which also makes me think she had RSV in the past.

 

Something I noticed with her once when she was in the emergency room with an attack is that her oxygen levels went up when she talked and went down when she was quiet. I wonder why that was?

 

My baby is doing OK, still wheezing a lot and very congested so we're definitely not out of the woods, but the overall trend seems to be better not worse.

[lovinmomma]

It's interesting to me that so many talk about their RSV babies later having Reactive Airway Disease/asthma attacks whenever the later got a respiratory infection. My oldest dd was like this until she was about 6 years old--any respiratory illness would start her wheezing. I wonder now if she had RSV as a baby, maybe that first time she had to have breathing treatments? I don't remember them ever testing. She's the only one who hasn't been significantly sick this past week, which also makes me think she had RSV in the past.

 

Something I noticed with her once when she was in the emergency room with an attack is that her oxygen levels went up when she talked and went down when she was quiet. I wonder why that was?

 

My baby is doing OK, still wheezing a lot and very congested so we're definitely not out of the woods, but the overall trend seems to be better not worse.

 

This is exactly what I'm thinking happened with my dd4.

[WiseOwlKnits]

My son had RSV at 11 months. He didn't look right so I called the pediatrician. They pushed me off and told me to bring him in that afternoon. I hung up, put him in the car, drove to the office, and insisted that he be seen. They took 1 look at him and got a nurse, who then got our doctor. A few minutes after we got to the office, John stopped breathing and had to be resuscitated. It was the scariest thing ever to see them hit the code button in the exam room, other nurses and doctors in the same practice come pouring in, and my limp, non-responsive, blue little baby grabbed from my arms so they could make him breathe again. The pediatrician said he would not have lived had he not been in the office.

 

He got over the RSV, but needed a nebulizer for over a year every time he got sick. They said he ended up with long-term lung damage from the RSV and told us at the time it would take 3-5 years for his lungs to heal from it. Apparently that's a common side effect of RSV. He's 6 now and just fine. No allergies and no asthma and he's hardly ever sick.