What Every Parent Should Know About Bronchiolitis
Coughs and sniffles may not seem like a big deal, but after a scary incident earlier this week, one mom is telling parents why it's so important never to ignore their babies' cold-like symptoms.
Beth Foster, based in the UK, recently wrote a Facebook post explaining how her 6-week-old daughter Myah had run-of-the-mill cold symptoms that turned into something much more dangerous: bronchiolitis. Myah had a “simple cough and cold,” Foster wrote, and so she took her to the doctor. He prescribed Myah eye drops and sent her home. But a couple days later, Foster noticed a severe change.
“Myah was using muscles in her tummy to help her breathe that she shouldn’t even be using to breathe,” she wrote. “I’ve never seen a baby’s tummy pumping so fast fighting for the breaths, and I’ve never been so scared... She had a coughing fit and her face turned purple for around 15 seconds.”
After being sent to the hospital from an after-hours doctor, Myah was immediately given oxygen.
“I was told [they were] surprised she didn’t end up in the ambulance,” Foster wrote. “We had no clue how serious this all was until that point.”
At the time of the post's writing, Myah was in the hospital’s children’s ward with oxygen and feeding tubes, and was under sedation to help her rest. Foster said it may be up to a week before her baby is allowed home; in the meantime, she's trying to get the word out about the dangerous infection, which causes a baby's airways to become inflamed.
“There is nothing more heartbreaking,” Foster wrote. “Even if your baby has a slight cough or cold, just get [it] checked out. Please spread awareness, as before all this, we didn't even know what bronchiolitis was."
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