MamaGrizzly

I have an RSV baby….  But let me preface that by saying I am blessed that she was born ON her due date at a whopping 8 pounds 5 ounces and VERY healthy.  She was also 100% breastfed until she was 9 months and then I started with food but continued breastfeeding for another 6 months.  So, all that to say it helped my daughter IMMENSELY with this dreaded virus.  It can be a deadly virus for parents of premies or children born with underdeveloped lungs or other problems.

When she was 7 months old (and it’s been almost a year to the date), she came down with what we thought was a nasty cold.  But, we were up with her for an entire Friday night - and I mean we paced the floor with her for 6 hours and she whimpered in our arms almost the entire time.  We KNEW something was wrong.  Fortunately, our pediatrician was open that Saturday for illnesses like this.  We took her in and the second the doctor listened to her lungs she said, “I think she may have RSV - let’s test her.”  Fifteen minutes later, we had the positive diagnosis.  We quickly became the proud owners of a nebulizer  and one treatment of Xopenex and Pulmicort in the doctors office and my daughter was no longer wheezing and had fallen asleep in my arms - FINALLY she could get oxygen to her lungs.

We continued with breathing treatments pretty steadily through January but we QUICKLY discovered that when she got the Pulmicort (which is a steroid) in the evenings, it woke her up at night.  So, we just continued with the Xopenex through January and then after that watched her carefully and with every cold, she started back on the Xopenex treatments.

Fast forward to this year - she’s now 19 months and the RSV is still affecting her.  We had to start back with the breathing treatments this year for all colds and continue them for a couple of days after the cold symptoms are gone.   The doctor highly encouraged us to do Pulmicort twice a day and Xopenex three times a day.  Well,  we gave her Pulmicort at night for 2 nights straight and guess what?  Our little “like a rock” sleeper was up each night - WIRED TO THE MAX wanting to PLAY!  What???  This is the SAME little girl that will go to bed at 8:00PM and sleep in and cuddle with her Daddy on Saturdays until 9:30AM!   So, we decided to NOT give her Pulmicort last night - guess what?  Our little sleeper was back!  She didn’t want to have a party at 3:00 in the morning!  Anyway, just wanted to post our experiences with that in case other parents are out there searching for answers!

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 15th, 2007 at 8:15 am and is filed under Health, Life, Parenting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.