What's RSV?

Ok. this is going to be a boring post, BUT very informative and important for the sake of our babies health! I got all the info from http://www.synagis.com/
RSV stands for "Respiratory syncytial virus (sin-SISH-shul VI-rus), or RSV, is a common, seasonal and easily spread virus. You’ve probably had RSV and thought it was just a bad cold. In fact, nearly all children will get their first RSV infection by age two.

Most people with RSV suffer moderate to severe cold-like symptoms. For some babies, RSV can be more serious—it's the #1 cause of hospitalization in infants. Preemies and babies born with a heart or lung condition are at higher risk for severe RSV disease, which could lead to serious lung infections like pneumonia and bronchiolitis. It is estimated that the annual infant death rate due to RSV is 10 times greater than that of the flu, with up to 400 infant deaths from RSV each year in the U.S."

Just by reading this from the information that I received in the NICU, it didn't really hit me how how vulnerable my babies are to RSV, until I saw the following picture comparing the lungs of a preemature baby to the lungs of a full term baby. Please take a look (if you click on the image it will get bigger and you can see it in better detail): This is why we CAN'T forget the vulnerability of our babies lungs. Even though they look big and healthy now, we can't forget that their lungs are still developing and we need to be as careful as possible, especially now during RSV season.

This is another shocking comparison between a term baby's airway and a preemie baby's airway.

So you are probably wondering what kind of precautions are we taking to prevent the babies from getting RSV and what kind of precautions visitors need to take:

1. If we are starting a cough/cold/flu we wear a mask, BUT if you are starting one of those please stay away (we love you, but we need to be careful).
2. We wash wash wash wash wash wash our hands as often as possible (my hands are VERY dry and rough from all the washing 24/7). This is one of the best ways to prevent any germs from spreading (sometimes we don't know that we'll be getting sick so it's important to wash our hands as often as possible). So please don't feel offended if you come visit and we ask you to wash your hands.
3. Also the babies will receive the Synagis shot once a month.

Thanks for taking the time to ready this mini-informative post about RSV and for caring SO much for our babies:)