Home Baby Help What Is RSV? Nick & Vanessa Lachey Warn Parents After Son Is Hospitalized By Shahrzad WarkentinOctober 30, 2018 Search more like this immune-systemvirusrespiratoryillnessdiseasepneumoniainflammationprematurethrowbackknowwarnawarenessriskchildhood Read next Baby Help The Best Organic Clothes for Babies & Toddlers Baby Help 45 Pumpkin Carving Designs That’ll Wow the Neighborhood Baby Help Target’s Best Holiday Deals Start Sooner Than You Think Baby Help This Larger Than Life Mister Rogers Monument is Exactly What the World Needs Baby Help Want a Free Donut on Halloween? Here’s How to Get One from Krispy Kreme Vanessa Lachey recently shared a throwback pic of her youngest child with husband Nick Lachey, Phoenix, to share an important warning about RSV. What is RSV, you might wonder? As Lachey explains, it’s a childhood illness all parents of newborns should be aware of. As Lachey shared in her post, Phoenix, the couple’s youngest child of three, was just 30 weeks when he was born prematurely, which gave him an increased risk of being susceptible to human respiratory syncytial virus, a common respiratory virus known as RSV. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the virus is so common that most kids will have it before they turn two, but in the majority of cases the symptoms will just appear as a regular cold. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Vanessa Lachey (@vanessalachey) For infants under six months old, however, or those with a weakened immune system like Lachey’s premature son, it can cause some very serious complications and lead to severe secondary infections such as bronchiolitis, an inflammation of the lung, or pneumonia. Lachey made the post in honor of RSV Awareness Month to help more parents learn about the dangers of the illness. “When he was hospitalized for six days for severe RSV disease, I was shocked and terrified. I wish I had known more about RSV before this traumatic experience,” she wrote in her post. —Shahrzad Warkentin Featured photo: Vanessa Lachey via Instagram RELATED STORIES: Parents, Don’t Fall for These Common Flu Myths If Your Baby Is Too Young for a Flu Shot, Get Them This Instead At-Home Flu Tests Could Be a Huge Help to Parents & Kids
