When Isaac was small, we had him in day care because we both had to work. It was a no-brainer. We did what all parents do-we visited all of the day cares in contention and chose one that we felt best fit our needs. We sent Isaac off with a smile and a “miss us!” which he didn’t.
So, when you’re working, what do you do when your kid has the sniffles? You send them in to day care. Which is exactly what we did on the day that we met up head on with RSV.
We sent Isaac with what we thought was just a runny nose. Meh. Whatever. Happens.
But then, my phone started ringng.
My “naps are for wimps” kid had slept an hour and a half. Normal nap was 35 minutes.
He was burning up with fever and coughing super hard. We figured ear infection. SO, right to the doc’s office we went. Isaac was immediately sent to the Emergency room and triaged. We had NO idea what was going on, just that we needed to get some fluid in the kid and get the fever down.
WHEELLL, while there, we heard our then 9 month old wheezing and gasping.
It was then the docs diagnosed him wtih RSV. Oh, and throw in an ear infection to boot.
It was a whirlwind few days in the hospital making sure we had a little guy who could breathe and was able to keep fluid down. What a few days that was. It was the worst thing, seeing my child in a hospital crib, and knowing that maybe had we kept him home with the sniffles, we may have prevented this.
See, no matter what day care or school you send your kiddle to, RSV can take hold. That is the Respiratory Syntactical Virus. You know, the one that you and I shake off as a cold and our little ones have a worse time with.
So, what could we have done to maybe prevent this whole episode, seeing as prevention is key…
We could have…
1) Kept Isaac home. It was the easiest thing to do.
2) Washed his bedding from Day Care more frequently. We took it home once a week, but during this time, we should have most likely taken it home every other day.
3) Make sure we were meticulous about hand washing and especially hugging and kissing.
4)Washed all the toys (including the beloved exersaucer) to make sure we didn’t have any day care germs.
and maybe followed the tips on this site
and maybe, just maybe you can avoid a hospital stay and your kid having to fight through RSV.
At least we had a nurse who loved the Apprentice as much as we do here…and fired us on a daily basis. It was PRICELESS.
This post was sponsored in conjunction with Latina Bloggers Connect. All of the content here is my own. Like I can make a nurse firing us a la Trump up? Seriously.