A Personal Experience of a Common Cold

A Personal Experience: The Differences of a Common Cold in a Toddler vs. a Newborn

Ariyanna Renae

Aniyla Rae

By Alison Pawlikowsky

        
Having two children around the same age is very challenging. Every day I wake up wondering how my day is going to turn out whether it’s going to be smooth or total chaos. I would like to share my experience of having two children with a common cold and the differences of effects it has on a toddler vs. a newborn. I have a very high strung 14 month old who will always keep you on your toes. I wouldn’t call her “bad” but very ornery. She constantly has to be watched as do almost all 14 month olds. She is constantly getting into things and very spoiled. She always has to get her way or it’s a problem. I also have a 8 week old newborn who as well is very “needy”. She has GERD or in common terms Acid Reflux. She constantly spits up and screams for no apparent reason, something along the lines of how a baby with colic would behave. It’s not her fault and since I’ve already dealt with it my first daughter, the second time around isn’t so bad.

         My first daughter, Aniyla, was first diagnosed with an ear infection while I was pregnant with my second. Being pregnant and having a very sick and teething toddler isn’t pleasant. In fact, it was probally one of the hardest things to deal with. Being at the end of your pregnancy and having a 1 year old crawling all over you and only wanting her mother is very uncomfortable. I had to fight my tiredness and morning sickness every day and care for her. But I wouldn’t really call that the worst part. My daughter finally got over her ear infection and had a runny nose for a couple of weeks. Around the time I had my second daughter, Ariyanna, my first came down with a very bad cold. There was no antibiotic to help so it was kind of one of those “make the best of it” situations. I thought she was getting better but then I realized everyone around her was getting sick with a cold but it didn’t really faze me of how it can affect a newborn. I never saw a newborn with a cold. Ariyanna was throwing up so I just figured it was her formula so I switched her to a Similac AR formula, which is a formula to help babies who spit up a lot. The first day she was on it she was fine. The next day she started projectile vomiting and I noticed she was sneezing a lot. I figured she was having similar symptoms as my other daughter and that she would get over it just as she did. I failed to realize how hard it hits a newborn. My daughter Ariyanna came down with a fever of 101.3. When a newborn has a temperature over 100.4 that’s an automatic “go to the emergency room” sign as I would call it. If you are unable to get a hold of your child’s pediatrician or it is after hours, always go to the Emergency room. Never take any chances with a child so young. Immediately I knew it was time to go after she was not keeping anything down, running a fever, and just plain miserable. She was surrounded by sick people and was having a hard time fighting it. I was worried something could happen to her but I didn’t realize she was as sick as she really was. Ariyanna was admitted to Children’s Hospital with a virus known as RSV, Respiratory Syncytial Virus. RSV is known as a common cold in adult’s but it newborns it takes over their respiratory system and causes serious symptoms such as shortness of breath, vomiting, fever, congestion, runny nose and diarrhea. These are a few symptoms that are common but can lead to aspiration, pneumonia, hospitalization and even death. Once I found out how seriously sick she was it was heart breaking. I blamed myself for letting my first born pass a cold to my newborn. Ariyanna was hospitalized for almost 2 weeks. She was on oxygen and had a IV. It was heartbreaking seeing my 1 month old with needles in her arms and an oxygen tube in her nose. It was even harder the fact that one of her parents had to be with her at the hospital at all times since I had a not so sick but still sick child at home. Their father and I had to work together and travel back and forth a couple of times a day for one of us to always be there. Ariyanna eventually started to slowly get better, her symptoms started to diminish and she was finally released.

         The point of me sharing this experience is to inform my readers how different a simple cold can be in children not that far away in age. It doesn’t hit a toddler as bad as a newborn. As a mother you don’t always have the answer for everything and just because you already have children, not everything is the same with every child. I was amazed to see my one year old fine with a cold but my newborn not being able to fight it at all. In fact, I’ve never saw a baby that young with a cold at all but after It was all done and over with, I did my research to find out that is just as serious as pneumonia in a newborn. I would like to advise all mother’s to never underestimate anything when it comes to your children and to never relate anything to what one of your children has been through, not everything is the same in children.