It was a learning experience through a very hard traumatic time with my husband and me dealing with Isaiah's illness.

I'm Dr. Mona Amin, a board-certified pediatrician and mother. As we're in cold and flu season, I want to talk to you about respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. Rsv is a highly contagious respiratory virus that usually causes mild cold-like symptoms. Out breaks commonly occur between October and April and peak in January and February. Rsv can spread when virus droplets from a cough or sneeze get in the eyes, nose, or mouth of another person. It can also spread from direct contact with the virus, like touching a surface, such as a doorknob that has the virus on it, then touching your baby's face before washing your hands. For many people, RSV can be mild and present with symptoms similar to the common cold, annoying, uncomfortable, but ultimately no big deal. Most people recover in a week or two. But for certain age groups, RSV can be serious, especially for babies. That's because a baby's immune system isn't fully developed yet and they need time to grow stronger. Rsv is the leading cause of pneumonia and bronchiolitis in babies younger than one year, and it's the number one reason why babies are hospitalized. 80% of babies that are hospitalized due to RSV were hospitalized during the first six months of their lives.

That's what happened to Katherine Judichi Lowe's son, Isiah.

In 2018, my second son, Isiah, was actually hospitalized for RSV, which at that time I didn't know what RSV was. It was a very, very scary time. Nothing that my firstborn had experienced had prepared me for the hospitalization and the diagnosis.

Katherine is a businesswoman reality television star, the winner of the 17th season of ABC's The Bachelor in 2013, and currently lives in Dallas with her husband, Sean, and three children. I didn't treat her son, Isiah, but back in 2018, he was hospitalized for RSV.

I was working the day after Halloween, so this is cold and flu season. For the past couple of days, Isiah had had some congestion and a little feverish, but it just seemed like something that was just a cold. It wasn't super concerning, but my husband decided to take him to the pediatrician. My husband and I are pretty chill about most things, so we thought, Okay, everything's going to be fine. But the pediatrician told us that he couldn't even go home to get anything for Isiah or for a potential stay. He had to go straight to the ER with Isiah because of his oxygen levels. The next thing I know, I'm terrified with what's happening. I just see him strapped up to these machines with an oxygen mask on.

As a pediatrician, I've had many patients come in with similar situations. They all talk about how scary it can be to see your child in that state.

It was a very traumatic time. We actually stayed in the pediatric intensive care unit for four nights, which was something we had never experienced before. Because I was nursing at the time, that's something that I was used to, that closeness. It was a distressing time for me to witness my son not being able to eat on me because of this illness.

Katherine and her husband didn't know where Isiah could have gotten RSV. As a parent myself, it feels like illnesses are everywhere: school, daycare, the playground, the grocery store. Isiah has an older brother. Maybe he could have brought it home from a playdate. You just never really know.

I didn't know anything about RSV at the time. So when they were telling us that that's what he had was a respiratory virus, it was so confusing because we just thought it was a cold. It looked like a common cold, all the signs, which were a little feverish, and he had some congestion.

Nasal congestion is one of the possible symptoms of an RSV infection. Other symptoms include difficulty breathing, chest congestion, dehydration, and fever.

So the thing that we experienced with Isaiah in the difference between him just having a cold and an actually having RSV was the difficulty breathing. I could see that tangible evidence of his little tummy going in and out and having a hard time breathing versus just a congestion in his nose, and he's breathing out of his mouth. I'm just glad that my husband took the step to just check it out by a professional because if it was just us and I was there, and I wasn't working, this could have gone differently and I could have just said, Oh, everything's fine.

Isaiah's hospital stay was pretty typical for babies who are hospitalized for bronchiolitis. He was hooked up to oxygen to help with his breathing and was given IV fluids to help keep him hydrated.

So to see your baby on a hospital bed with tubes in his nose and in his arms and IVs and not being able to hold your baby, it was really, really challenging. But I knew he was getting best care and that we made the right decision. Again, I give Sean Loe so much credit because he decided to take him to the pediatrician, and then we were directed immediately to the hospital.

Although RSV isn't always serious for babies and young children, it can be hard to predict if it will become serious like it did in Isaiah's case.

The first thing that we did when we left the hospital was make sure that our other son, Samuel, our two year old, wasn't super close to Isaiah. We are such a kissy family, and we're always in each other's faces, and we're always close and cuddling. But we just wanted to make sure that Isaiah didn't spread RSV to Samuel. We didn't even let them share straws or food or utensils or, again, be really close to each other on the couch even. For Isaiah, the things that we were doing to make sure he was getting better was make sure his mucus was cleared and making sure he was getting a lot of liquids and staying hydrated. Another thing that I remember before he was admitted to the hospital was when he was getting milk, he was spitting it all up because there was so much mucus in his throat that he couldn't get the milk behind the mucus. And so he wasn't getting any nutrients. And so for this, we had to make sure he was getting a lot of liquids in him to bring that mucus down.

People infected with RSV are usually contagious for 3-8 days, and may become contagious a day or two before they start showing signs of illness. However, some infants and people with weakened immune systems can continue to spread the virus even after they stop showing symptoms for as long as four weeks. Thankfully, in Isaiah's case, he made a full recovery.

Isaiah now is the most bullish, healthy, five-year-old boy who plays flag football and runs in the opposite direction. He runs fast, even though it's in the wrong direction. He is just a bulldog. It's such an interesting juxtaposition between that helpless little baby at five months old that I saw hooked up to Machines and who he is today, which is a strong, healthy, stalky young boy, just ready to take on anything that life has to offer him.

When it comes to the lasting effects of RSV, research is still being done, but some infants who get RSV can have complications later in life, such as asthma. If your baby is congested, there's no need to go down the rabbit hole. I'm a mom, I get it. Focus on the baby in front of you. Does your baby seem dehydrated? It? Does their breathing seem labored or difficult? Does your baby have a fever? Are they irritable? If so, it might be time to see your pediatrician.

I want other moms to know from my experience to understand the difference between it's just being a cold in their child and RSV because the outcomes are so different. We didn't know anything about RSV before Isaiah got sick, and it ended up being so much more serious than we could have ever imagined.

Parents or those planning to become parents should feel empowered to talk to their healthcare provider about RSV, as well as options for prevention. Also, if you are pregnant or thinking about becoming pregnant, talk to your OB-GYN or other healthcare provider to learn more about how to help protect your baby during the most vulnerable stages of their life. Visit bewareofRSV. Com to learn more about the risk of RSV.