RSV season warning in family chat

[AutumnIsHereAnd]

My SIL has today shared a “warning” in our family group chat to say we are no longer allowed to kiss my nephews (even on the HAND!), because of “RSV season”. The boys are 4 and 15 months. AIBU to think this is absolutely ridiculous, especially given the fact they’re the ones who are always poorly?! She’s said if any of us kiss them we won’t be seeing them for the rest of winter!

So just respect her wishes then. If they are always ill then its exhausting and worrying. You dont have an automatic right to kiss people.

I find your post about this more weird than what your sister in law has said. Just respect her wishes and move on. Even if she is a bit over the top, it's just that she doesn't want her kids seriously ill and that doesn't make her ridiculous

Don't worry. I was with the SIL on this. DD was in hospital for 3 weeks with RSV. I had no idea that the NHS use TikTok to get their message across.

Her children, her choice. Your need to be right is a bit OTT

It gets called a pile on but that just means the majority disagreed with them 🤷‍♂️ feels like a pile on because the overwhelming masses are in agreement.

Do we have the same SIL 😅
Mine is always making me feel like my kids are some sort of disgusting germs and her children are perfect sanitised angels. One time her sisters kids caught a flu off her children, who they insist caught it off my children and her sister made a Facebook post about how her kids had MY SONS FLU, used his name and everything, like he was in a lab cooking it up himself. (FYI my kids had never even met her sisters kids). Some people are hard work 😒

You don't need to kiss kids to pass things on. Anything can be passed on by being close to someone. If you are all that worried just stay away from each other to be really safe.

Maybe her job is jeopardy with time off with sick kids, been there around those ages

I’ve never kissed a kid that’s not my own tbh, might be different if I even have grandkids but only if their parents were ok with it.

Tbh she is right it is RSV season along with a billion other viruses which they can get from you and you can also get from them so probably a good idea all round to avoid close contact like kissing for everyone’s sake.

Both of my children were hospitalized with RSV, first at over a year old, second at 6 weeks old and I was seriously worried both would die. Eldest had prolonged seizures and youngest has developed asthma from the damage it did to her.

Don't kiss babies.

Op the reason it's the kids always sick is for an adult RSV is a bit of a sneezh cold, for babies it's respiratory distress, inability to take on nutrients and lung scarring and that's without the complications of my eldest seizures.

What's the point of all the awareness-raising on this thread about the dangers of RSV, if the conclusion is "don't kiss children" which is ineffectual because kissing isn't how respiratory illness is spread? There is NHS advice about not kissing babies but it's aimed at parents of newborns and primarily about herpes.
Ventilation, masking, avoiding close contact, staying home if you're ill etc are all way more important than avoiding kisses.

which is ineffectual because kissing isn't how respiratory illness is spread?

But if it is airborne and you are close enough to kiss a baby then logic would say that it is a risk?

Yeah, sure. But people are saying OP could hug them or comfort them in other ways. If RSV is very dangerous and they're avoiding it then OP needs to keep her whole self away, not come close together and stop short of a kiss. Like actual social distancing.

But any sensible person wouldn't hug a small child if they had a cold anyway.

She’s babysitting them though. Bathing them putting them to bed, picking them up when they cry. You cannot do that for young children without cuddling them.

RSV isnt the common cold. It IS for adults but it's serious for young kids. Like plenty of PP my twins were both hospitalised with bronchiolitis caused by RSV when they were little.
Them giving you RSV, not a big deal. Other way round could be.
It's not that hard to understand that it affects different ages in different ways. It's like COVID at the start. Not a big deal for kids, potentially deadly to old people.

Unfortunately covid is a big deal for many kids - well over 100,000 children with long covid in U.K. by 23/24 (50,000 of those in the last year of that ONS survey). It is also awful for children seeing their lives and those of their family become drastically smaller when a parent has long covid.

But surely it’s not just about passing it on to the OP? So the kids have a mild case of RSV (which does happen. Not every single child will be severe and hospitalised). They pass it on to the OP. Who then gets a bus or goes to a shop and passes it on to a child who gets a severe case. Unless the boys mother is getting them tested every time they have a “cold” no one will know what it is or how severe it will be for others when it inevitably gets passed around.

The fact is no one knows how any virus will affect them. RSV could be a minor illness in some children. Covid could be barely noticed by a 90 year old. But the fact is people only worry when they think it might affect them. Like the boys mum. She’ll let the boys see the OP when it’s “just a cold”. But it’s just a cold for THEM! It could be more serious for someone else.