RSV in Week old

[Emhead93]

My DS been in hospital since he was a week old with RSV his now 11 day and his breathing is so hard.
His on oxygen and a machine to open his airways.
They're going to put an IV drip on him now too as his feeds are making him work even harder.
Has anyone had any experience like this and it all turned out okay?
I feel like it's never ending and getting worse and worse everyday!
I feel like a terrible mum as I just can't watch him go through it so DH staying with him a lot.
I just want him home in my arms he doesn't deserve this:(

I have no useful advice but just wanted to send some unmumsnetty hugs to you. Your poor wee DS. Hope he is getting much better soon. It must be so distressing to watch.

Exactly the same thing happened to my youngest at just over a week old. It’s a nasty illness and they ended up intubated and tube fed in the PICU but bounced back so quickly that they didn’t even need to go back on oxygen when they came off the machine after a couple of days. They’re now a very bouncy 2 year old and you wouldn’t guess they’d had such a scary start. If anything I’ve had more long term effects due to the trauma of it all.

Your DS is in the right place and is being looked after, make sure you look after yourself too as hard as that is! Don’t feel guilty about leaving him for periods of time, especially as he’s got his dad with him. My advice would be to find something to keep yourself busy as there’s not much you can do medically and you can drive yourself mad watching their breathing.

@WallaceandGrommit I'm so sorry you've had to go through this once too.
It just feels like there is no end to it. I'm so desperate to see that improvement and it's just not coming yet.
I think you're right it's already traumatising me as it is and it's not even over yet.

Bless you, it's incredibly hard to watch them so unwell.

My little girl had RSV at 14 days old and was in hospital for 3 days. She couldn't feed as she would get breathless so they started tube feeds.

At one point she went really stiff and her oxygen levels were very low. It was horrendous.

Our consultant told us that the prognosis for RSV is excellent and there were lots of little ones with RSV in our ward, so the doctors are all very used to treating them.

Dd's signs were worst at about 3 days and apparently days 3-5 are usually worst.

She's now 4 weeks old and completely back to normal. Hopefully your little one turns the corner very soon.

Awful. It is so scary. Something that might help is to talk to a medic about how poorly he is on their scale - because your scale is to compare him to 'regular babies' but they know about poorly babies.

I am so sorry you're going through this with your newborn @Emhead93 it's the absolute worst!

DS2 had RSV at 3 weeks old, he was on high flow oxygen and a drip as he couldn't even tolerate 10ml milk. At one point he started suffering from apnoeas where he would totally stop breathing for over 20 seconds at a time, a nurse actually sat beside his incubator all night and had to manually rub him to get him breathing again, and he was about 30 mins away from being transferred to ICU and ventilated. Terrifying. He had bacterial pneumonia at the same time and needed a seriously strong antibiotic by syringe driver, but after two doses he thankfully turned a corner.

We were in hospital for 6 days. He weaned off high flow within 48 hours and didn't even need supplemental oxygen, and was back on bottles very quickly. I couldn't believe how quickly it all turned around!

They are tough wee things. Stay strong and I hope you see some improvement very soon!

@veeolay it's horrible, I'm struggling so much to get through.
His Dad has done the last few nights as I'm in no mental state.

His on antibiotics, oxygen, IV drip and the machine that opens the airways. His bloodgas results are coming back worse too

We're on day 6 and it just seems to be getting worse.
How long did it seem that your DS was at the worse point? I know all babies are different I'm just waiting for any slight improvement.

He started getting sick on the Saturday and we went to hospital on Tuesday, I'd say Wednesday -Friday were really bad. He had 2 X-rays, was on second line antibiotics and maxed out on ibuprofen and paracetamol and was on only a fluid drip. The doctor told me at the time that RSV is usually very predictable but whatever has happened since covid kids with RSV didn't seem to be following any sort of pattern and were getting sicker than usual.

I remember them talking about blood gases when he was really poorly, they told me if it got any worse he would need a ventilator but thankfully it stayed the same so they said he was coping on just the high flow oxygen.

It's so scary. I did all the nights as I couldn't bear to leave, but it was awful and I wish I had shared the load with DH. It turned around so quickly though, he went from being the sickest baby on the ward to being discharged before a lot of them who weren't as bad as he was. And he has suffered no lasting damage and has a really healthy immune system.

How is your little one doing @Emhead93 ?

@MissIndecisive2023 still in hospital :( still on oxygen and IV drip but having a few mil of milk through a syringe.
Poor boy it's heartbreaking

@Emhead93 that's great he's tolerating the milk feeds...little step in the right direction. Thinking of you and sending you and un-mumsnetty hug x

@veeolay thank you. His back to tube feeds. Hoping it's not long till we can try the bottle again.
Think we'll still be here a while yet. I've given in and let the in laws do a few shifts as our DD was wanting mummy and daddy home x