RSV Diagnosis - Help!

[Anonymous]

Our 7 month old was diagnosed with RSV today. Dr. perscribed Xenopenx and Budesonide via a nebulizer 3x per day and a liquid steroid.

The problem is Baby will not sleep. It's been almost a week now that he simply cannot get comfortable or stop coughing. The cough has improved some after 3 nebulizer treatments; he barfed up the first dose of the steroid.

He's exhausted, we're exhausted. Does anyone have any tips for making him more comfortable and/or helping him get to sleep??

[Anonymous]

I'm so sorry you are going through this. RSV is no fun! My son also had difficulty sleeping when he had it. Our pediatrician recommended having him sleep in his car seat to keep him more upright and help with the cough. It definitely seemed to help him sleep on a short-term basis. I hope you all can find some relief soon!

[Anonymous]

Call the doctor again. We had to do neb treatments 6 times a day when my son had RSV. The 3x a day may not be enough.

[Anonymous]

We are going through this right now-with TWINS. Can we say zombie mommy?
We also use the nebulizer 6 times a day so I agree, your son may not be getting the relief he needs with just 3 doses.
Wish him better OP.

[Anonymous]

I found it helped when my son slept on me. My breathing seems to help his breathing. Plus, he was a bit more upright. This especially seemed true when he was in the hospital. He was hooked up to the oxygen monitor, and I really did see his improvement with the numbers.

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone for the advice. Feeling lots of empathy for Zombie Mommy and the twins.

He has been sleeping upright in his bouncy seat and on one of us. He wakes up around 1 a.m. and stays up crying or screaming or just futzing around.

He is also coughing more - is this normal after beginning the nublizer treatments? And I guess at what point should we expect to see improvement?

[Anonymous]

The steroids and neb treatment will also cause sleeplessness.

[Anonymous]

You should see improvement after a neb treatment and they should cough less. As the meds wear off they will cough more. Did your pedi give you parameters for when to go to the ER? I would find this out stat.

[Anonymous]

Not to scare you OP, but the neb treatments did not work for us. Baby was getting very tired and not sleeping well so we took him once more to the dr and ended in an ambulance directly to the hospital. His oxygen levels were very low and the exhaustion was caused by not being able to breath.... We stayed 5 days in the hospital. They didn't even try the neb there and went directly to respiratory therapy.

[Anonymous]

You may also want to check out some form of antacid/reflux med. Oral steroids can be hard on the stomach causing reflux, which makes a cough worse.

Hope you get it under control soon.

[Anonymous]

I hope that everything went okay last night.

I want to warn you that constant coughing with RSV can be a sign that the baby is having too much difficulty breathing. If it happens again please call the pedi for advice as they may want you to go to the ER.