Mothering Forum banner

Rsv!!! (update, not rsv, it's croup!)

1K views 14 replies 9 participants last post by  mattjule 
#1 ·
I posted recently about DS being stressed over starting daycare for the first time link to thread . Well I just found out another kid in his room has been diagnosed with RSV! And I think DS has it!
: I will take him to urgent care this afternoon to confirm, but here are his symtoms:

Monday night high fever. Tuesday no fever, but coughing and a little runny nose. Tuesday evening his voice is funny sounding with a lot of coughing. During coughing to catch his breath, his inspirations are a terrible high pitched whistling sound. Tuesday night, the fever returned and he woke up a lot with coughing. This morning, his fever is gone but still has coughing and a little runny nose. He hasn't had much of an appetite since Monday either.

I'm kind of mad that daycare made him sick, but what am I gonna do?
: And now he can't go to daycare if he's sick, so DH and I have to take turns missing work and school.
:
 
See less See more
3
#2 ·
I'm sorry! My boys are just getting over Bronchitis and it was so bad. I was sure the little one had RSV, but the test said he didn't. I hope it's just a nasty cold!
 
#3 ·
Sounds a lot like RSV to me. My son had it in November at 26 months old. He ended up hospitalized overnight in order to get oxygen and IV fluids. It was pretty awful to go through but he bounced back really fast. What I learned from our doctor and the internet is that RSV is an extremely common and highly infectious illness. A lot of people, including adults, get it and think it is just a common cold. In children under 3 it can be more severe, although even then the need for hospitalization is rare. Is your son still nursing? I think that is what kept my son from getting even more dehydrated than he did. He was not eating or drinking but he was still nursing a lot. After they drew his blood in the hospital they told me he was not as dehydrated as most of the kids they admit there for RSV. I guess somehow from his blood they could tell.

Our timeline was: Monday afternoon DS got sent home from preschool early for being coughing and feverish and miserable. We went to the doc right away that evening because he also had green crud coming out of his eyes. Doc (not our usual one) diagnosed croup (?) and gave us antibiotic eyedrops as well as oral abx (which I saw no point of and did not give to DS). Doc said he would get better in a few days. Tuesday DS still had a fever, a lot of coughing, was miserable. Wednesday and Thursday were more of the same. Around 2 am Friday morning DS woke up coughing and crying and patting his chest and saying, "Hurt...tight." He was also kind of wheezing. This alarmed me a little--if I'd had any clue to really carefully examine his breathing, I would have taken him straight to the ER, but I just didn't know. Friday morning we got a 9 am doctor's appointment and saw our ped. She listened to his breathing, measured his blood oxygen with the E.T.-finger thingie, and sent us immediately over to the hospital for a chest x-ray. She was suspicious of pneumonia at that point and had us admitted and oxygen and IV fluids started immediately. The chest x-ray came back clear of pneumonia and at that point they ran an RSV culture. This consisted of dripping some saline into DS' nose and then sucking out a glob of mucus with an aspirator. From that we got a diagnosis of RSV with a secondary complication of bronchialitis (this is a narrowing of the air passages, similar to what happens during an asthma attack). They told us there's not really a treatment for RSV/broncihalitis other than to keep his blood oxygen levels up (he got oxygen through a nasal cannula, which he didn't like but it is not invasive or painful) and to keep him hydrated. Since he hadn't eaten in several days, they switched him from the saline type fluid to something they called "nutrition." I guess it had glucose and vitamins and stuff, I don't know for certain, but it was more than just a re-hydrating fluid. Several times we had been told to prepare to stay in the hospital through the weekend, but the happy ending to this story is that around 7 am Saturday morning, DS woke up like a firecracker! He wanted down off the bed, he was running around the room dragging his IV pole--I mean he clearly felt like a million bucks. When the doc came in to see him she said, "When they're feisty like that it's time to go home." We were discharged around noon and DS was pretty much totally cured by then. They had us give him nebulizer treatments with an asthma drug for the next few days at home, but it was kind of weird because they also told us there's not strong evidence that asthma treatments even help for bronchialitis. Whatever, he got better anyway.

As for the daycare situation--don't beat yourself (or them) up too much. He might not have even picked it up there. We told our preschool director about the RSV diagnosis but she said no other child had been sick, even tho DS had been there coughing that first day he came down with it. We also got conflicting advice from two different peds at the practice we go to. One said he couldn't go back to school for another week because he was still contagious. The other (our regular doc) said it really didn't matter because he had probably picked it up there anyway. Since he seemed really healthy by that point, and I needed to go back to work, I only kept him home that Monday and Tuesday and then I sent him back. As far as I know no other children at his school came down with it at any point. So I don't even know if he acquired it there in the first place. Could have been from somewhere else altogether. Kids get sick, it happens.


What I learned about looking at the child's breathing is to pull up their shirt and see if their skin is sucking in around their ribs when they exhale. That means they are really struggling to breathe. Also the thing about DS saying "tight." I really wasn't sure what he meant by that. He knew about socks or shoes feeling tight, and was using the word appropriately, but I didn't realize the significance at the time. When I mentioned it to the ped later she was surprised he had been able to describe what he was feeling so well at his age. She said "tight" is exactly how his chest would have been feeling. So he was trying to tell me what he was feeling, I just didn't know what it meant.
 
#4 ·
We just got over it here. DS had a mild case and basically had bad, bad cold symptoms with wheezing for a week or two. It is the most contagious before you know they are sick, so it is hard to prevent infecting people. Also, I think I read that 95% of kids get it before the age of 2 whether it is known they have had it or not. Keep a good eye on your DS, I hope he has a mild case and is better soon.
 
#5 ·
I'm so sorry he's sick and I hope he gets to feeling better quickly!!
I'm not sure I'd be upset at the daycare, a lot of illnesses are most contagious right before symptoms come around, including a lot of colds and so on. Kids who don't even look sick could be walking around making *everyone* sick. That's why kids in daycare are at such a higher risk of getting colds and so on, including RSV. Of course, if a child was there with an obvious fever and so on, they should have been sent home...
 
#6 ·
Thanks for the support everyone, especially wednesday. DH just emailed me that Leo is still coughing a lot, but is energetic. I can't wait to get home this afternoon so I can take him to the doc and get an RSV test. Does anyone know what kind of immunity he might have to RSV after he recovers? Is it a once-in-a-lifetime thing, or could he get it again in a few months? I've been reading up on it, but can't find the answers to those questions.

I have one friend in town that we share babysitting each others kids for free when we can, but she just had a 32 week preemie, so I absolutely cannot have her watch Leo because of the daycare situation. (Her baby is doing OK though still in NICU. Born 5 1/2 pounds, would you believe!)
 
#7 ·
I just wanted to add that I believe getting sick is actually good for the immune system overall. I'm not really mad about all the germs he's getting exposed to in daycare. I think it's good for him. Just a little worried about his lungs, as DH has severe asthma, and I don't want Leo to develop it. And some websites say that RSV may precipitate the development of asthma.
 
#8 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by QueenOfThePride
Does anyone know what kind of immunity he might have to RSV after he recovers? Is it a once-in-a-lifetime thing, or could he get it again in a few months? I've been reading up on it, but can't find the answers to those questions.
What I gathered was that you can get it more than once, because there are various strains and it also mutates...but it seems like you wouldn't get it more than once the same season. Kind of like the flu, I guess?

Quote:

Originally Posted by QueenOfThePride
And some websites say that RSV may precipitate the development of asthma.
The respiratory therapist talked to us at great length about this. He was one of the ones who was skeptical that the asthma meds did any good, and mentioned that the research on this area so far is very mixed. He explained to us that the type of complication that DS had, bronchiolitis, appears very similar to asthma but is not in fact the same physiological thing. IIRC, they both cause constriction of the air passageways in the lower lungs, but not in the exact same way. He did tell us that bronchiolitis from RSV is associated with a higher incidence of developing asthma at a later age, but he said there wasn't any evidence that bronchiolitis CAUSES asthma. He said it is possible that a child who is predisposed to developing asthma anyway may be more vulnerable to developing bronchiolitis, for reasons they don't really know yet. But he also said that it's possible a bout of bronchiolitis does some kind of damage that leaves the child vulnerable to developing asthma. He said they just don't know. I don't know if that reassures you, with your DH having asthma, but since we have no other risk factors or history of asthma in my family I felt reassured. In any case, I don't think the link to asthma is just the fact of having RSV. The link is having RSV-induced bronchiolitis, which is really not very common.
 
#9 ·
OK, just got back from urgent care. It's not RSV, it's croup. The nurse and doctor said right away just from the sounds DS is making that it's croup. So we skipped the RSV test. I had no idea they would have to stick the cotton swab all the way up into his sinuses! Good thing we don't have to do that! I was offered corticosterioids but declined those. Does anyone know any home remedies besides steam?
 
#10 ·
If the steam does not work and dc is really having a tough coughing spell, sometimes cold air does the trick. My brother used to get croup frequently in the winter and my parents would have to walk him outside during the night to settle his cough. Did they give you any timeline to let you know what to expect? Hopefully things are getting better!
 
#14 ·
My DS just had croup about a month ago. Poor guy. I felt so bad for him. He was about 15 months old. It started with an extremely high fever for about 3 days (like 103). And he was very lethargic. Then he started coughing and it turned to that "barking seal" cough. Croup is an infection of the voice box (larynx) so it often means they sound very funny when talking or breathing. Though my DS doesn't talk yet, he never cried the whole time he had it because I don't think he really could -- it was like he'd try but it just sounded wheezy and weird. He nursed a lot, and drank a LOT of water, but ate very little. It lasted about a week total and he recovered very quickly. During the night if he had coughing spells I'd run super hot water in the shower and sit with him in the bathroom for about 20 minutes. That and lots of water to drink, plus the cough supressant Delsym (prescribed by our Dr.) helped a lot.
 
#15 ·
Our ped gave us pulmacort, a nebulized steroid, that we use when the kids get croup. After a frightening trip to the ER when ds couldn't breathe, I just don't mess around with croup. Plus once they get it, they are more likely to have repeated incidents (this has been true with us). The nice thing about the nebulizer is that we can give them meds when they are having trouble breathing and leave it alone when they aren't, I think it allows a lot more parental judgement than the "take twice a day" oral meds. Plus the kids sit and breathe deeply and they don't fight me about it. My kids currently have RSV, my ped said it is characteristic to have copious amounts of clear mucous, just in case anyone is wondering.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top