Are You Prepared for RSV Season?

This post was sponsored by AstraZeneca as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central and all opinions expressed in my post are my own.

Nearly all babies by the age of two in the US will contract RSV, however severity varies. Severe RSV disease can cause up to 125,000 infant hospitalizations and around 200 infant deaths in the US each year! We were lucky enough that Charlie was never even diagnosed and Owen only had a mild case.

Because of Charlie's heart condition, we were extra careful with him as a baby. If he got sick, he just didn't have the ability of fight it and it could have effected his surgery. We could not take the chance of him contracting anything.

Every October, National RSV Awareness Month helps educate parents about the signs and symptoms of RSV disease as well as prevention measures you can take. RSV is a common, seasonal virus that typically occurs between November and March in the United States and is the leading cause of hospitalization for babies in their first year of life.

You can help prevent your child from contracting RSV by doing a few simple things, like making sure everyone in contact with your little one keeps their hands clean and sanitizing their toys and other belongings. Of course, always talk to your child's pediatrician about anything you are worried about, even if you think it may “just be a cold”.

Some of the things you can look out for (and never ignore) include troubled breathing or rapid breathing, continual coughing and/or wheezing, fever at 100.4 or higher and blue like color around mouth and/or fingertips.

Now that our boys are a bit older, we don't worry about them with RSV, but we do need to be responsible to those with babies around us. If the boys are sick, we keep them home from school and try to stay in until they're over whatever they've got going on. It's really just good practice, but I can't imagine my child being the reason another little one winds up in the hospital.

Visit http://bit.ly/2bvRxSm to learn more about RSV disease and how to help keep your child healthy this RSV season!