Host Amber Smith: Here's some expert advice from Dr. Joe Domachowske from Upstate Golisano Children's Hospital. What do parents need to know if their pediatrician says their baby has RSV?
Joe Domachowske, MD: Just watch carefully for signs and symptoms of inability to feed effectively, depending on the baby's age, if they're nursing, or if they're taking a bottle. You want to make sure that they're not struggling to feed because they're trying to breathe instead, right? So if that starts to happen, we would bring those babies into the hospital, and we support them the best we can. We keep their nose and their upper respiratory tract as clear as we can using suctioning techniques and a saltwater syringe with a bulb syringe to clean out their nose.
Joe Domachowske, MD: But there really isn't anything else that we can offer them as an outpatient because nothing works. Things have been tried, and they just do not change the natural course of this infection. When we bring them in the hospital, that's also true, but we have IVs. We can put IVs into babies, and hydrate them up. We can have a nurse at the bedside keeping their nose as clean and as clear as possible and supplemental oxygen or more invasive types of respiratory support, as needed. So when those events start to be considered, that's when we bring the babies in, and the younger they are, the more inclined we are to hospitalize them.
Host Amber Smith: You've been listening to Dr. Joe Domachowske from Upstate Golisano Children's Hospital.
