Bronchiolitis in 8 month old, experience and hand-holding please

[HJBeans]

Our 8 month old has been in hospital since Monday on and off with bronchiolitis. We think this is day 4 of the illness. After being in Sunday night he was released Monday morning only to be straight back to A&E, then home again, then back to hospital in an ambulance due to breathing trouble on Tuesday. He hasn't needed oxygen but has been regularly suctioned. And he has had high fever, yesterday not responding to calpol - they say this year's strain is bringing on a lot of fever. He's been on a feeding tube from yesterday morning as he wasn't getting enough fluids in. Until yesterday, he was himself in between sleeping and coughing - smiling at me, trying to play. But yesterday the light just went out and it's not come back on. He's listless and weak. I'm terribly scared. I have anxiety and the stupid voice in my head is telling me I'll not get him back.

Has anyone who's baby has been in for this had similar experience with the fatigue / lethargy at the peak of the illness? They said it was the fever, but the fever'S down and he's not back. My biggest worry is that they're missing a secondary infection. My anxiety about this makes me unable to look after him without panicking - I feel I'm letting him down as his mum because I can't stop myself going off the deep end with worry.

[laracroft2001]

Hello

I has similar experiences with my DS between age 1 and 1 yr 9 months. (He is now 5).

He was in and out of hospital quite a few times, mainly on oxygen however and for up to 6-8days at a time. Quite traumatic indeed he also had a collapsed lung a few times

Generally we found day 5 to be the worst and then the recovery from there seemed to be quick. I think first couple of times we were really keen to get him home quicker, but by the last time I would have stayed for a month just to ensue he was well.

Your child is definitely in the right place and if he is on his anti b's etc I am sure he will be fine. It's worse on the parents I think - esp watching the suctioning, but the good thing is at that age he won't remember a thing.

I found it helped to get involved.. the nurses let me change beds/hold him when getting suctioned etc just so I felt I was doing something. I found it hard when he was eating nothing and literally drinking 5ml a day- he did get a drip however. Lots of sleep for him was def key.

It was a really rough 9 months, but he has been fine (touch wood) ever since then- maybe it's helped his immune system some way I don't know, but he rarely even gets troubled by a cold.

Hope all is well soon x

[laracroft2001]

And yes I remember the listlessness around this stage of the illness. Completely normal but awful at the time.

[GizmoFrisby]

I had this with my dd she was about 6mo. I must say it was a really horrible time. So for you.

I was in hospital with her for 6 days I think,and I would say it was a really hard time,she had feeding tubes,was throwing up constantly, oxygen all the time. And it was really scary. She had bronchiolitis and then picked up gastroenteritis in hospital. It was horrendous.

Only advice I would give is make sure you have plenty of support. Bringing u food etc in. As I never got fed at all when I was in there, for the first 2 days I had nothing to eat.
She had an extra test which came back positive and that showed she had to be in a confined room.
Which was actually better than being on a ward. Your in the best place with her. Keep your chin up. And look after yourself

[GizmoFrisby]

Sorry him not her

[Sirzy]

Hi, ds had it many times when he was little and days 3-5 were always the worse.

I agree with getting as involved as you can in basic care. Make sure you look after yourself too - plenty of rest and food

[HJBeans]

No antibiotics yet - still being treated as viral bronchiolitis, but I'm terrified there's something else. The listlessness is terrifying and not something I'm seeing in the other babies on the ward. :-(

[Sirzy]

Bronchioltisis is vital - have they done the swab to check if he is RSV positive?

In my experience of bronchioltis listlessness is pretty normal. But talk to the staff if your worried they will be able to put your mind at ease or do more tests if needed.

[HJBeans]

Yes, he's positive for RSV. Staff say this is to be expected and they've seen hundreds of babies (one nurse has been on the ward for 22 years!) Still struggling to quell the panicky voice.
Thank you for responses, it's really helpful to hear this isn't unusual and that your wee ones pulled through it.

[Sirzy]

It's normal to be worried. If he is on day 4 hopefully he will start to perk up in the next 24-48 hours.

As he starts to feel better and begins to feed normally again he should pick up pretty quickly.

[CurtainsforRonnie]

I havnt, but I wanted to say get well soon baby

[0hCrepe]

My baby dd just had it at 5 weeks- just mild though so I won't pretend to know what you're going through. But you're in the right place and doing everything possible for your ds. He is poorly and that voice in your head is your anxiety which is to be expected, but it isn't able to predict something you can't. Such a horrible time to go through but he'll turn that corner soon.

[HJBeans]

He just had a brief period of consciousness after they suctioned him. He smiled at me and I burst into tears. I miss him so much even though he's sleeping on me as I write this. Feel childish being so tearful, but I just want him back.

[GizmoFrisby]

It's natural to feel like that, your tired and your baby is poorly and your stuck in hospital. It's really hard. I said it was one of the hardest things seeing my dd like that. I cried all the time. I couldn't watch the nurses do the tube feed thing I walked out in tears. Honestly it's totally normal. Be kind to yourself OP

[SortAllTheThings]

Hi, just going to send you a PM

[pontificationcentral]

Ds1 had RSV at 11 weeks. It was a pretty rough couple of weeks but he came through it - hang in there (()). They did warn me that he might be more susceptible to asthma as a result, but he has never had any problems subsequently.

[wonderwoo]

You are having a really hard time OP. Be kind to yourself, you allowed to be tearful. I'd be bawling all over the place! for you and get well wishes for your little one. I am sure they are taking great care of him and would err on the side of caution if they had any worries. Try to take your lead from them.

[HJBeans]

Thanks everyone.

It was a much better day than yesterday in terms of how he's acting but his oxygen saturation keeps dropping and his fever isn't going. They did some blood tests and looks like there may be a secondary infection. This terrifies me.

I want to be with him and I want to make sure he's watched carefully and treated promptly (e.g., I detect the fever before the nurses would find it, etc.) but I don't know if I can hold myself together enough to spend the night. My husband could.

[Sirzy]

Let your husband stay, go home and get some rest.

I say that as a mum who was pretty much forced off the ward when ds was on night 5 of his admission. I was exhausted and an emotional mess but I didn't want to leave. A fantastic nurse explained to me that he needed me strong and to do that I needed sleep, she also pointed out that when a child is discharged they are still ill so will be more unsettled at night etc so it's important for parents to be rested. My mum stayed with him that night, I was back at the hospital at 6am but at least I managed to have a shower and get a few hours sleep.

[SortAllTheThings]

If you don't feel you can go home, at least have a shower. Just that short time can help clear your mind and help.

Talk to the nurses about how worried you are.

[Dontlaugh]

I am sorry you are going through this. My ds has been here +++. RSV, bronchiolitis, pneumonia, failure to thrive, tubes, the works.
We spent months in hospital, but he was very very ill.
Tips: bring clothes from home for hospital, toiletries etc. For you!
Has your son an oximeter on? Then any drop in pulse/O2 will be noted immediately and an alarm will alert staff that his sats have dropped so don't worry that you are not there yourself. In our case staff always phoned when he seriously deteriorated if we were not there, due to time of day (6am one spectacular morning) they do notice!
Hopefully he will recover fine, we were surrounded by parents like you who were in for a traumatic week or so but were never seen again, hopefully that's you.

[HJBeans]

Still very poorly. Fever still up. Depends which consultant you speak to whether this is a problem. So far, their opinion is that it's all consistent with this year's strain of RSV.

[Shells2129]

I really feel for you. My 8 week old baby had it and she kept choking on what sounded like mucus. We were lucky, we were in hospital on day 5 but was released that night. She began coughing loads which brought up a lot of mucus she had when she was born and now sleeps 7 hours rather than 2. I understand how difficult it is trying to stop your anxiety but if your unsure, ask. Don't be worried about whether or not they will be annoyed or what they think. It's part of their job to help you understand. Everyone is right though, when my daughter went in the doctor asked if this was day 5 by any chance as it gets worse then better on day 7.

[Poptart27]

OP have they done an X-ray yet? If not please push and push until they do one. Dd2 was dx at 3 weeks with pneumonia, the ONLY reason we found out was the pead in a&e thought she was too small to be so sick and xrayed her before sending us home.

SAME happened with ds when he was 8 months. It was horrible, I took him to a&e and before they admitted they sent him for a chest X-ray. Exact same results and we went home with antibiotics.

NEITHER had any crackling or other signs of pneumonia and were listened to by more than one doctor. Go with your instincts, if your gut says it's something more fight until they do more.

[HJBeans]

They've agreed antibiotics if the temp returns today. They say blood tests would show other markers than CRP if bacterial infection was going on, and he wouldn't be so relatively well in himself in between fevers. I'm happy enough if they put him on the antibiotics if more fever. If they aren't needed, no harm done. If they are we have them.

He was smiling and playing when consultant did rounds, despite looking awful two hours before. He's so up and down, which again they say is typical of RSV. They said this strain is causing fever and lasting a long time - a few weeks ago they put loads of babies with my DSs symptoms through invasive tests to try to find another cause and all of them just had RSV. This is reassuring to me.

[HJBeans]

He's just been sick again and is lethargic. I've asked my husband, who is in with him now while I fail to sleep at home, to press them to start antibiotics despite the fever not coming back yet. Feels like he's deteriorating on day 6 and am absolutely terrified.