Anonymous wrote:My DS was hospitalized for RSV for a week (including a short stay in the PICU). He's 2 now and probably on his way to an asthma diagnosis (recurrent wheeze/shortness of breath with almost every cold).

I'm mostly just looking for some support/sympathize/anecdotes about how your child, if something similar happened to them, turned out. I'm really hoping that even if my son has asthma, that it's something he can grow out of, despite the severe infection he had as a baby.

Both my children were hospitalized with RSV. One for 6 days and one for 8 days. One was 11 months and one was 8 months. We are in none of the high risk groups. One has very mild asthma and needs an inhaler when he gets a bad cold or other bad respiratory diseases. The other one developed Reactive Airways Disease and was hospitalized twice in the following year. Part of the problem was he got quite a bit of colds/allergies in the following year and his lungs never had time to completely heal. Once he was out of that stage and was on Flovent for six months or so he did not have a problem until junior high when we all got something where we all needed inhalers. They are now in their twenties and neither have had any issues in years.

My son was in the PICU for 9 days with RSV at 2 weeks. He was also a 34 week premie so i think they were extra cautious with him. Overall, he recovered but the doctors at the time warned me that his respiratory system would likely always be fragile. He is five now and extremely sensitive to allergens. We just did a small renovation in our home and he had to stay at a relatives house because he was wheezing so hard he was throwing up. He is also very prone to croup, bronchitis and walking pneumonia. Pretty much every time he gets a bad cold, it turns into 2-3 weeks of coughing and breathing treatments. Otherwise, he is extremely athletic and active. I was kind of a basketcase about Covid with him but he has had it twice and was fine at home both times.

Anonymous wrote:My DS was hospitalized for RSV for a week (including a short stay in the PICU). He's 2 now and probably on his way to an asthma diagnosis (recurrent wheeze/shortness of breath with almost every cold).

I'm mostly just looking for some support/sympathize/anecdotes about how your child, if something similar happened to them, turned out. I'm really hoping that even if my son has asthma, that it's something he can grow out of, despite the severe infection he had as a baby.

We went through this with our oldest 30 years ago. The doctor said he would never outgrow the asthma, but he did. By about age 10.There were a rough few years in there, though.

My youngest caught RSV at two weeks old, and spent 6 nights in the NICU, part of it on a ventilator. He’s a healthy kid, with no asthma symptoms. My oldest child already had reactive airway disease (the precursor to the asthma diagnosis) before catching RSV and bringing it home to the newborn. RSV was just a short virus for our eldest, for whom any other cold triggered an asthma attack. Our RSV NICU kid is healthy and barely bothered by viruses.

RSV is absolutely awful in babies, but it doesn’t guarantee that kids will deal with asthma later on. And asthma also really sucks, but doesn’t need RSV to trigger it.

Was never hospitalized but had a bad bout of it at 5 weeks. The only obvious remnant at elementary age is a croup cough when sick that we just move on past. Best to you OP. it’s so stressful i know.

We were hospitalized for RSV at 3 weeks. We did get a lot of ear infections that led to a speech delay, but otherwise super healthy! No asthma!

Anonymous wrote:My DS was hospitalized for RSV for a week (including a short stay in the PICU). He's 2 now and probably on his way to an asthma diagnosis (recurrent wheeze/shortness of breath with almost every cold).

I'm mostly just looking for some support/sympathize/anecdotes about how your child, if something similar happened to them, turned out. I'm really hoping that even if my son has asthma, that it's something he can grow out of, despite the severe infection he had as a baby.

Yes, my son is 17 now and was hospitalized with RSV when he was 10 months old. He was in the hospital for 9 days. I caught it from him and it was the worst cold I had ever experienced.

He did get diagnosed with asthma later on. Brought on by upper respiratory infections. He was in and out of the hospital at least once a year for several years. He also had a peanut allergy diagnosis. Fast forward to when he was 8, he had his first asthma attack that did not require hospitalization. And it only got better from there. He still had asthma, but attacks could be managed with an inhaler. He stopped using an inhaler around age 11 or 12 and has not had any issues since.

He still has the peanut allergy. And we still watch his breathing. We have both a peak air flow meter and a pulse oximeter that we keep handy. While he may feel a bit tight in the chest at times with colds, he still measures well on the peak air flow meter and never has blood oxygen level issues.