Watch the belly, one WVU pediatrician says.
That’s a good indicator to determine if your baby has RSV – opposed to a cold.
Right now, the respiratory syncytial virus better known by its three-letter abbreviation is wreaking havoc on emergency rooms and pediatric wards nationwide.
That includes WVU Medicine Children’s, where every bed was full last week.
RSV carries mild, cold-like symptoms: coughs, fever and a runny nose.
Under normal conditions, nearly all U.S. children will have had a bout with it by the age of 2.
Adults can come down with it and not even know it.
However, these aren’t necessarily normal conditions, in the sense of how illnesses are spread and immunity is layered.
Thank the pandemic and its shutdowns two years ago of daycare centers and schools for that. Cases of RSV dropped – dramatically even.
It started coming back in summer 2021.
And RSV, as a rule, is normally a fall and winter virus.
Symptoms, as said, usually are mild, but the virus also has a track record of being lethal, which isn’t helping, health experts say, given the country’s collectively low immunity.
RSV can typically lead to 58,000 hospitalizations a year for kids under the age of 5, and can cause up to 500 deaths a year in that group.
For those 65 and older, it can bring 177,000 hospital stays a year and up to 14,000 deaths yearly, among that population.
Which brings it back to the belly – and the new parents.
Your baby’s belly is going to heave if he’s having trouble breathing, says Dr. Lisa Costello, a WVU pediatrician.
His chest is going to cave and his nostrils are going to flare. He’s even going to grunt from the effort. If he can’t breathe, he can’t take a bottle.
Then, the pediatrician said, there’s no question.
“If children are having a hard time breathing,” Costello said, “they need to be seen by a healthcare provider.”
Reversing RSV?
If you aren’t up to date with flu or COVID-19 shots, it couldn’t hurt for you to be seen by someone either.
That’s because conditions may be right for a “tridemic” this fall – meaning that the flu, COVID and RSV could all hit their peaks at the same time.
Especially, health professionals say, when the weather gets colder and people begin to gather indoors.
“I’ve been practicing for over 30 years and I’ve never seen it so severe this soon,” said Dr. Kathy Moffett, WVU Medicine’s chair of infectious diseases.
While there’s no vaccine for RSV, rolling up your sleeve preventively for COVID and the flu could slow the curve on what many medical professionals are referring to as a crisis, she said.
Don’t be afraid to take your kid to the ER, she said, even if the waiting room is full.
“We can work your child in,” she said. “We can handle RSV.”
Common sense, clinically
Along that aforementioned heaving belly, there are other RSV indicators out there, Moffett said.
Watch if your kid starts complaining of ear pain, she said.
Don’t assume a sore throat automatically means strep either, she added.
Especially watch the baby and the bottle, she reiterated, since nasal congestion is everything. Babies basically breath through their noses, and especially so during feeding.
For the adults in the room: If you’re sick, stay home for work, she said. If you’re sneezing and blowing your nose every 10 minutes, you’re infecting your co-workers, she said, even if you’re being careful.
Don’t visit your elderly great-aunt at the height of flu season. And you can see your cousin’s newborn after RSV and everything else calms down.
Don’t schedule playdates for your kid’s friends if he’s sick.
TWEET@DominionPostWV
