Terrified 4 week old will get sepsis

[Heysimon]

Hi, just looking for reassurance and similar stories. We have a 4 week old DD and all of us (DH, DS and i) have awful colds. Sneezing, sore throat and coughing. So far DD has not shown any signs of it (checked temp, not fussy, eating) and this is what is worrying me. When my DS was 7 weeks old DH and I both had awful colds (autumn baby) and he did not pick it up at all. About a week later he was fussy one night (although still eating and wet nappies), had a temperature and had not been no2 for a few days so I took him to the dr the next day and long story short he was diagnosed with sepsis probably caused by the cold we had. We were in hospital for 3 nights and he was on antibiotics and thankfully fully recovered. I think I have ptsd from this as it did affect me for a long time and now I'm terrified it will happen again with my newborn as she does not appear outwardly ill as my DS didn't. Not sure what I can do but I'm just so upset.

I couldn't read and run as I can really relate. Something really traumatic happened with my daughter (resulting from a seemingly innocent infection) and it took me a long time to get over it. Even when she's poorly now afew years later I get very anxious although I manage much better than I used to. I think what helped me at the time was trying to come to understand WHY it happened. After lots of conversations what helped was simply a GP ended up saying to me 'you were just very very unlucky' which was reassuring that it's extremely atypical. Did you speak to any professionals at the time (that you can remember) who explained why it happened as surely it's quite rare? It's really important to be able to process a trauma in order to recover. I'm sorry you're going through this x

@newtolineofduty
Thank you for replying. Maybe the issue is that we did not get many answers, we were just told DS probably caught our cold and that's how sepsis developed. We were told young babies cannot fight infections as well and they show up differently. Not once were we told it was rare to have happened.
I think what worries me is that I didn't think he was ill at all, the thermometer was an ear one and gave different readings, I was more taking him to the dr for constipation! Now I am terrified of my DD getting this cold, DS is at nursery so there is no avoiding these things. I am checking her constantly but like I said I am still scared the same thing will happen as i cant see why she does not have it already. DH says what happened with DS is uncommon and there is nothing we can do but I'm still very worried

You are worrying about something that hasn’t happened And will probably not happen
Just keep an eye on your baby who at the moment is absolutely fine
Different years have different cold and flu strains and this year will probably be a different strain then what happened last time
i used to get terrible flus and colds that even put me in hospital once and my baby who was five weeks at the time was absolutely fine and dandy, Also not all babies are the same- just Because your other child became ill doesnot mean this child will
Also you know the signs now , and You can keep an extra eye
Just Follow hygiene advice i.e. sneezing and coughing into a tissue, washing hands before handling baby, airing the house ect, making sure your DS washes hands before handling baby, not letting her cough or sneeze over the baby, teach him to cover his mouth when coughing or sneezing and put a clean set of clothes on him when he comes home , giving baby any advised vitamins such as ABIDEC ect , stop worrying! X

Also babies do need a degree of germs to build up resistance,just keep Baby warm and well fed and everything will be fine

In regards to the trauma of what happened I'd probably speak to a GP about your worries about your baby, and in explaining why you're so worried you might have an opportunity to help process what happened with your first x otherwise you'll be worried every time your little one gets a cold! I can totally empathise though-it'll get easier with time x

Thank you for your responses, sorry I have not replied until now I have been quite ill DH has been off looking after our 2. I do feel a bit calmer and will definitely speak to gp x