Your role in keeping babies healthy around the holidays

WESTON, Wis. (WSAW) - Between Christmas and the New Year, you’re likely to get together with friends and family. Before you do, you might want to take an extra second to think about how healthy you are.

“Sharing is not always caring,” said Dr. David Holz, a Marshfield Clinic pediatrician.

From a young age, people hear it often—wash your hands. The more germs are spread, the more likely people are to get sick.

For babies, their immune systems are weaker than adults and they can get sick more easily.

“The mouth is a dirty place and shares germs that we don’t want a newborn to have or be exposed to,” Holz said.

Marshfield Clinic’s Dr. David Holz said the biggest respiratory infections babies can get are RSV and Croup.

“When we think of croup in particular, it basically causes swelling of the airway. So, you think of an adult airway, it’s this big. A child’s airway is this big,” Holz said. “So, if you have the same amount of swelling that occurs for an adult, it doesn’t really cause enough of an obstruction to cause those symptoms.”

Croup tends to cause a barking-like cough that can last three to five days, but symptoms can last for up to two weeks.

As for RSV, swelling in the airway can also happen.

“Instead of just the typical runny nose and cough, these children can develop significant wheezing, increased worker breathing, and get to the point where they actually need to be hospitalized for oxygen support,” Holz said.

A baby can get RSV at any point, but doctors see the most cases in October through December. That’s when respiratory infections typically rise. They can also be spread the most during gatherings with friends and family.

“The contact with especially newborns and young infants, it really should not be anything that involves kissing,” Holz said.

Dr. Holz said they offer an RSV vaccine that babies can get within the first couple of days of being born. He also encourages anyone feeling under the weather during the holiday season to stay home.

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